Daniel R. Porterfield, Ph.D., has served as president of Franklin & Marshall College since March 2011. He prioritizes enhancing academic excellence, promoting student success, increasing civic outreach, and helping young graduates thrive in life after college.

Under Porterfield’s leadership, F&M has enrolled several of the most talented and diverse classes in its history and dramatically increased the number of first-year students eligible for federal Pell grants, with a corresponding strengthening of academic depth and achievement. F&M has achieved these results by increasing need-based financial aid and forging partnerships with strong schools and college access programs that work with students in underserved communities.

Porterfield serves on the boards of the Cristo Rey Network, the Lenfest Foundation, and the College Board, and sits on the Teach For America University Champions\' Board and the College Advising Corps Advisory Board. He has received awards from both the KIPP Foundation and the “I Have A Dream” in recognition of his work to expand college opportunity.

Porterfield contributes frequently to the national dialogue issues like the value of the liberal arts, college access and success, and the impact of technology on higher education. He has served as a panelist for NBC News’ Education Nation andThe National Journal’s Next America series and was the only liberal arts college president invited to speak in 2014 at the White House summit on college opportunity and the White House STEM education workshop held in Boulder, Colorado. His pieces have been featured inThe Chronicle of Higher Education, theHouston Chronicle, and thePhiladelphia Inquirer, and he writes regularly forForbes andThe Huffington Post.

Prior to his appointment at F&M, Porterfield served as Senior Vice President for Strategic Development for his alma mater, Georgetown University. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, and earned his Ph.D. in English at The City University of New York Graduate Center.