Dr. Elizabeth M. Béjar currently serves as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Florida International University. She serves as advisor and provides direct support to the Executive Vice President and Provost in her primary responsibility for educational policy and academic programs. Much of her recent work is dedicated to mobilizing and working with teams of education professionals to research, pilot, develop and implement 21st century student success initiatives.

Dr. Bejar previously held the positions of Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Accountability. In her role as the first Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Accountability for FIU, she was responsible for establishing the institutional assessment and evaluation plans and policies that currently undergird the university’s practice of continuous improvement and developing a culture of evidence based decision making.

In addition to teaching in the public schools, Dr. Bejar has served as an Academic Policy Analyst for the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. Dr. Bejar’s research includes contributions to an encyclopedia on women in higher education, and as Principal Investigator for a funded grant studying minority-serving institutions-models of success.

She received a PhD in Higher Education Administration from Boston College, an MS in International and Intercultural Development Education from FIU, and a BA in Psychology and Elementary Education from the University of Miami.

She is a member of the board of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, serves on the Florida Board of Governors Council of Academic Vice Presidents Work Group on Program Coordination and is an advisory board member to Excelencia in Education, an organization that aims to accelerate higher education success for Hispanics.