Todd Diacon
Second Candidate for the President of Emporia State University
Todd Diacon serves as Deputy Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In this position he directs town-gown relations, co-directs university relations with the state legislature, and directs the UMass Community College Connection, which he created. He also is leading efforts to increase exchanges between UMass Amherst and Brazilian universities.
At the University of Tennessee Diacon served as the Head of the History Department, the Vice Provost for Academic Operations, and the Executive Director of Academic Assessment and Program Support. In the latter two positions he directed efforts to improve student success. As Executive Director he headed the university’s effort to implement the Complete College Tennessee Act, which transformed higher educational funding in the state by moving to an outcomes funding model. At UMass Amherst he serves on the enrollment management committee, as he did at Tennessee. While at Tennessee he served for five years as the school’s NCAA/SEC Faculty Athletics Representative, and he chaired the NCAA’s Progress Toward Degree Waivers Committee.
A full professor of history at UMass Amherst, his second book won the Warren Dean Prize for the best book on the history of Brazil. During his career he has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Foundation. He served as a visiting professor of history at the Federal University of Goias, Brazil.
Diacon is a native of Wellington, Kansas. He earned his B.A. in history from Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Wisconsin. He is married to Moema Furtado, an artist and arts administrator. They have one child, Natan, who is enrolled in the Master of Architecture program at Tulane University.