Gustavo A Mellander

Background

Mellander was born in California and lived in many Latin American countries. He earned a Ph.D. in history from George Washington University in 1966 and later was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters by Felician University in 1977. He was selected to attend the American Council on Education's Institute for Academic Deans and later its Institute for College Presidents.

He has served as a faculty member, a department chair, a division chair, a university dean at several institutions, a president at two colleges, a district chancellor of a two-college district with a student body of 35,000 and lastly as a graduate school university dean at George Mason University. He also served as a dean of business affairs and a university chancellor in interim capacities. He is a founding member of the American Association of University Administrators.

Later he helped establish a National Institute to train college presidents.

In August 1975, he was named president of Passaic County Community College. He immediately commenced a major housecleaning, suspending or putting one-third of the student body on probation, replacing over 40 teachers and administrators, and terminating 75 percent of the non-teaching employees. The college was also on the verge of losing its accreditation. Within three years Mellander corrected the problems and the college was fully accredited for the first time in its history. The college became a leader in establishing high academic standards.

In 1985, he was named president of Mission College, a community college in Santa Clara, California. After five weeks at that position, he was named chancellor of West Valley- Mission Community College District, which included Mission College as well as West Valley College. While there he raised academic standards and increased the District's outreach programs to better serve working adults.

He instituted a program so that every faculty member could receive a laptop to work beyond their college offices. Both colleges were re-accredited under his leadership and he instituted a variety of new programs.

In 1992, he left California to direct a doctoral program at George Mason University. After one month, he was also appointed dean of the Graduate School of Education. The school was in serious accreditation difficulty and had suffered weak academic leadership and poor faculty morale. Mellander corrected all the problems in three years received full accreditation.

Mellander helped establish several doctoral programs. He taught doctoral level leadership courses at Lehigh University, Inter American University and George Mason University. He has also lectured doctoral candidates at Columbia University, Seton Hall University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and George Mason University and the University of Puerto Rico.

He established Latin American Studies Departments at three universities and wrote several books on Latin America, including the critically acclaimed "The United States in Panamanian Politics: The Intriguing Formative Years." Danville, Ill.: Interstate Publishers. OCLC 138568. It was categorized as a "best seller" at the United Nations and is widely quoted in academic and diplomatic circles.

In 1999, he and his wife Nelly Maldonado Mellander co-authored Charles Edward Magoon: The Panama Years".

He has also written books on Malaysia and Singapore, United States history and co-authored a book analyzing college presidents. For over 25 years he has contributed a column every month to The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine. Many of these columns have been reprinted in academic journals; see "Education Digest" - May 2007.

After serving as the Dean of Academic Affairs at Inter American University and later at York College of Pennsylvania, he was appointed a Director at the New Jersey Department of Higher Education. There he exercised academic program approval and financial overview for 38 colleges and universities. He worked closely with those institutions, their Boards and with the New Jersey Department of Higher Education. He helped draft legislation and upon its passage, he authored statewide implementation standards.

Mellander served on the American Council on Education's New Jersey Panel for the Advancement of Women in Higher Education. He is a founding member of the American Association of University Administrators and was elected to its first Board of Trustees.

He also served on a city School Board of Education as well as on the New Jersey State Board of Education. He was appointed to several College Boards and National Commissions. He chaired Governor-elect Thomas H. Kean's Higher Education transition team in 1981.

In April 1985 he was awarded a Congressional Citation by the United States House of Representatives for his achievements in Higher Education.

He has served on 53 college accreditation/licensure teams and as a consultant to numerous colleges. He also helped write a Higher Education Master Plan for Hungary in the 1990s.

In 1999 he was offered the Chancellorship of 12 colleges in the United Arab Emirates, but did not accept. He is a founding member of the Center for International Education at George Mason University. (See: http://cehd.gmu.edu/centers/cie/professional_development/faculty_asociate_profile/)

In 1992 he was appointed a Graduate School Dean as well as Professor of Educational Leadership and College Administration at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. While there he was selected by a secret faculty vote as the best administrator at George Mason University.

His research interests include the role of educational leaders, how colleges transform themselves, and faculty as change agents. He is presently a Contributing Editor of The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education and writes a monthly column. His brother Karl James Mellander graduated from the University of California-Berkeley where he worked until he retired. Their grandfather Fredrik Mellander was Knighted by the King of Sweden in 1938 for his contributions to Swedish Higher Education.

In 2014 to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal, The Library of Congress compiled and published “Reference Guide to Panama Materials At The Library.” It is available to scholars and the general public worldwide on the Internet.

Two of Mellander's books were highlighted: “Gustavo A. Mellander, wrote two books which are considered essential for the study of the early diplomatic relations between Panama and the United States: Charles Edward Magoon: the Panama Years (Río Piedras, PR: Editorial Plaza Mayor, 1999)and The United States in Panamanian Politics: the Intriguing Formative Years (Danville, IL: Interstate Printers and Publishers, 1971).”