2025 Speakers

Joshua C. Baker, OD, MS

Dr. Joshua Baker, originally from Blossvale, New York, was named President and CEO of Midwestern University in September 2025. Dr. Baker had held key academic and administrative roles within the University since 2013, including Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer and, most recently, Interim President and CEO.

An Army Major, Dr. Baker served as the Chief of Optometry Service at the U.S. Army Health Clinic in Stuttgart, Germany. He also spent time deployed in Al Asad, Iraq from August 2007 to November 2008 and received the Bronze Star. Dr. Baker served as Chief of Optometry Services at Bassett Army Community Hospital, Fort Wainwright, Alaska prior to his deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Dr. Baker received his bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College in 1999, earned a Master of Science in Secondary Science Education from Syracuse University in 2001, and graduated Magna cum Laude from the Illinois College of Optometry in 2005. His post-doctoral residency was in primary eye care at Northeastern State University College of Optometry at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Baker has previously served as the Assistant Dean, Assistant Dean of Clinical Affairs, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Arizona College of Optometry as well as the Acting Dean of the Chicago College of Optometry.

Joseph E. Aoun, PhD

Dr. Joseph E. Aoun, a well-known higher education thought leader and renowned scholar in linguistics, is the seventh President of Northeastern University.

An internationally respected voice on the value of higher education, President Aoun has led the global expansion of Northeastern’s signature co-op program, bringing experiential learning opportunities to more than 140 countries. During his tenure, the University has created a global university system spanning 13 campuses across North America and the UK, increased external research funding sevenfold, and hired more than 800 tenured and tenure-track faculty.

He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. In it, he expands on his initial blueprint for colleges and universities to meet the challenges and opportunities associated with the transformative effects of artificial intelligence. The book outlines three primary strategies through an updated lens: the importance of a new curriculum for the A.I. age called “humanics”; the case for experiential learning, the ideal delivery system for this new curriculum; and a call for higher education to place lifelong learning at the heart of the educational enterprise.

Prior to Northeastern, Dr. Aoun served at the University of Southern California’s College of Letters, Arts & Sciences where he was the inaugural holder of the Anna H. Bing Dean’s Chair. He received his Ph.D. in linguistics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and advanced degrees from the University of Paris VIII (France) and Saint Joseph University (Beirut, Lebanon).

He was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the French government, and is a recipient of the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a past Chair of the American Council on Education. Most recently, he received the Peter J. Tanous Founder’s award from the American Task Force on Lebanon for his exceptional achievements in education.