Bruce T. Alton

Bruce T. Alton brings to the search experience over a decade in the academic presidency plus twenty-five years of counsel to college and university presidential and provost search committees.  With service to well over 100 presidential searches to his credit, Dr. Alton is recognized as one of the most experienced and successful in the profession.

After twelve years as president of Rocky Mountain College, having been appointed as one of the youngest to ever assume the academic presidency, Dr. Alton joined AGB’s Presidential Search Consultation Service in 1986.  In 1988, he and two others founded Academic Search, Inc., growing the firm over the next 20 years.  

Dr. Alton has been invited to present on the topic of search and leadership  transition at the national meetings of nearly every major American higher education association, including the American Council on Education, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the League for Innovation in the Community College, the National Council of Independent Junior Colleges, the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities, as well as the Eli Lilly Foundation and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  

Active in local, regional, and national organizations, Dr. Alton has served on educational, bank, hospital, cultural, community service, and church boards of directors.  In addition, he has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and as a demonstration blacksmith for the National Park Service.  He is a devoted recumbent cyclist.

A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, from which he was the recipient of a 2011 Distinguished Alumni Citation, Dr. Alton also holds the Master of Arts degree from Michigan State University and the Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. 

bta@agbsearch.com