Shawn Abbott was appointed vice provost for admissions, financial aid and enrollment management, effective May 14, Provost JoAnne Epps announced in February.
Abbott will be the first to hold this position at the university.
Before relocating to Philadelphia, Abbott will finish out Spring 2018 at New York University, where he has served as the assistant vice president and dean of admissions since 2010.
“The possibilities of where Temple could go in the next decade and beyond just really excite me,” he said. “I’m also really excited about being part of [the] renaissance of North Philadelphia, which I’ve kind of watched from afar.”
Temple has broken its record for most freshman applications received consecutively for the last four years, with 36,840 applications in Fall 2017. In the school year prior, 82 percent of full-time undergraduates received financial aid.
“Shawn’s impeccable credentials are matched by his passion for urban universities and Temple’s mission of expanding access to an excellent education,” Epps said in a statement. “This makes him a perfect fit not only to continue our innovative admissions efforts but also to help ensure our students limit their debt by graduating on time.”
Abbott’s first worked in higher education as the assistant director of alumni relations at Drexel University. He also held positions at Boston University, Columbia University and Stanford University.
In his career, Abbott has also been affiliated with the United States Department of State, where he works as a consultant within the Office of Overseas Schools. In this position, Abbott travels to visit schools in the Middle East and North Africa to provide counseling and advising to students about U.S. admissions and financial aid process. It has allowed him to visit 15 to 20 different cities, he added.
“I help families who are stationed abroad for whatever reason, whether they’re in the military or they’re in the foreign service, to really help them navigate the admissions process back in the United States,” Abbott said. “It’s great exposure for the university as well.”
Abbott said he is “deliriously excited” to arrive on campus. He added that he intends to spend the first several months getting to know students and faculty, as well as getting reacquainted with Philadelphia.
“I’ve always been enamored with Temple from afar,” Abbott said. “I spent some time in Philadelphia right after college, and Temple was one of the very first universities that I encountered above and beyond my own.”
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