For Harrison Keller, education is a calling and he considers it a privilege to serve as UNT's 17th president.

A sixth-generation Texan, Keller was born in Plainview, a small farming community in West Texas. His parents were both schoolteachers, so like a lot of teachers' kids, he grew up in their classrooms and was considered a pretty good student. After high school, he headed to the University of Notre Dame.

"I had a bumpy transition into college, and it took me about three semesters to recalibrate. That's something that I saw again with my own students when I taught freshmen at UT Austin. You see a huge difference between students who come from stronger high schools and students who come from weaker high schools. The students are equally talented, but the opportunities aren't equally distributed," says Keller, who earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Notre Dame and then went on to earn his master's and doctoral degrees at Georgetown University.

"This has shaped the way I think about the transformative power of education."

Those experiences have stayed with him and now are driving his agenda at UNT, where he called for focused attention on student success, research and innovation, and strategic budgeting after just his first month on the job.

"Our aim will be to expand opportunities and strengthen outcomes for our students, increase the impact of our research, and improve our operational effectiveness and efficiency," he says.

Specific to student success, Keller's commitment goes far beyond improving graduation rates. He wants students to know UNT is committed to them -- from the moment they first engage with UNT while deciding which college to attend through their time studying at UNT to well beyond graduation and into their careers.

"Higher education has never been more important," he says. "A UNT education should prepare today's students as tomorrow's leaders who will make a positive difference. Their UNT educations should ensure students graduate with credentials of value and strong foundations for pursuing their careers and leading productive and purposeful lives.

"We have a responsibility to our region, our state and the nation to provide talent for our rapidly changing workforce."

With more than 25 years of experience, Keller arrived at UNT already known as an innovative leader who has dedicated his career to education policy, higher education productivity, high school to college transitions and higher education finance.

Keller's résumé includes positions at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as deputy to the president for strategy and policy and a professor of practice, as well as vice provost for higher education policy and research, and executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. While at UT, he and other faculty asked themselves a question that would lead to the birth of a transformational program.

"We asked ourselves, 'Instead of waiting until students get to campus and then trying to help them fill in gaps, why don't we give students the opportunity to recalibrate when the stakes are still low when they are in high school?'"

From there, the OnRamps program was born. OnRamps began with 166 students in one computer science course and now delivers college-level courses to tens of thousands of students across the state each year.

"By the time I left UT Austin, we were serving about 40,000 students a year across the state, and more than 45% of them were first-generation," Keller says.

Most recently, Keller served as Commissioner of Higher Education for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, a position he served in from 2019 until he joined UNT Aug. 1. As commissioner, he grew to know many universities in Texas and across the nation, and he believes UNT is truly special.

"I often hear UNT called 'the best kept secret' in North Texas," Keller says. "I want us to change that perception. We have the potential at UNT to lead and innovate in ways other universities don't."

To achieve this, Keller plans to build stronger partnerships with employers, school districts, community colleges, other universities, and communities across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. His vision also calls for transforming UNT into a platform for students, faculty and staff to take their talents as far as they can dream.

"We have to get behind our UNT innovators and give them a platform to discover new knowledge, create new insights and increase the contributions UNT makes for our community, our state, our nation and our world," Keller says. "I love this work, and I'm excited to get to campus every day. I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to serve our students and our community."