President & Chief Executive Officer
Request an Interview Follow on Twitter/XDr. Poliakoff became part of the ACTA team in March 2010 as the Vice President of Policy, and became ACTA's third president on July 1, 2016. He previously served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and research at the University of Colorado and in senior roles at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Council on Teacher Quality, the American Academy for Liberal Education, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
He has taught at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Hillsdale College, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wellesley College. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and went on to study at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in classical studies. He has been a junior fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, and his research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, and the Alexander Von Humboldt Stiftung. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles in classical studies and education policy and has received the American Philological Association's Excellence in Teaching Award and the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Distinguished Service to Education Award.
It is with sorrow that the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) announces that it is suspending all engagement with the Heritage Foundation. The values that Heritage has defended in recent weeks depart too far from ACTA’s values to continue the relationship we have had in the past. ACTA has already signaled its disengagement in […]
To the Regents and Trustees of Big Ten Member Institutions: Recent reports that the Big Ten Conference is moving toward a vote on a $2.4 billion private-equity transaction with UC Investments, the investment arm of the University of California system, demand your immediate attention as fiduciaries. As a fellow governing board member and as a […]
As the University of Virginia (UVa) begins its search for a new president, it is imperative that the university require applicants to demonstrate their commitment to improving freedom of expression and diversity of thought on campus. Change in this area is urgently needed. In 2022, Emma Camp, then a senior at UVa, described a campus culture of fear that led her and other students to self-censor — and even lie — to stay on the right side of peers and professors. While our organization, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), has documented policy improvements at UVa in the areas of free expression and institutional neutrality over the last few years, our new survey shows that UVa still struggles with the problems Emma described.
What happened to Charlie is part of a rise in political violence in our country that transcends higher education. But we must recognize that rising intolerance and willingness to endorse violence as a response to speech on our campuses is part of the alarming trend. America’s institutions of higher education must be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
It is a relief that the government will now lift the freeze on much of the 1.3 billion dollars that sustain Columbia’s vital research and medical training. That a storied center of learning and research can continue its work is a blessing for everyone.
To understand the crisis in American higher education, it is necessary to hold two thoughts at once. American higher education remains the envy of the world, with seven of its universities in the top 10 of Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings. Yet the behavior on many campuses has caused public confidence in higher education to plummet.
Launched in 1995, we are the only organization that works with alumni, donors, trustees, and education leaders across the United States to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives an intellectually rich, high-quality college education at an affordable price.
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