Dr. Beaulieu brings outstanding academic and administrative experience to her role as UNE's Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. Dr. Beaulieu leads university-level strategic planning, implementation mapping, and the processes for enhancing institutional effectiveness. Currently, she is leading a team in developing a new competency based education model to make higher education more accessible and affordable to more adults with the support of a grant from the Gates Foundation.
Innovations in teaching and learning are of particular importance to Dr. Beaulieu. She led the planning for the development of the online Master of Public Health program and championed the development of the new College of Dental Medicine, using a unique community based, collaborative model. She holds and values a global perspective on higher education and served as part of an international team of advisors with Project HOPE to establish the first applied oral health professions program in China. Recently, Ellen traveled to France as a Fulbright Scholar to study the educational system in France and the European Union. With a new campus in Tangier, Morocco, UNE is poised to expand its educational reach further, so understanding the needs of the region is a priority for Dr. Beaulieu and the University of New England.
Dr. Beaulieu is a graduate of Northeastern University and the University of Hawaii, where she focused on cultural impacts on health status and economic development of individuals and communities. As an adult learner, she completed her doctoral studies at Nova Southeastern University where she received the prestigious Community of Scholars Award for her essay entitled "The learning culture of the next century: Making connections." Making connections with the business community is now a top priority in program development for the University of New England, under Dr. Beaulieu’s leadership, to assure relevancy in the experience of the contemporary learner.
