Executive Council

Prof. Costel NEGRICEA, PhD, Habil.

Rector of the Romanian-American University since 2020, Prof. Costel Negricea has over two decades of experience in academia, management and marketing consultancy. A full professor of Marketing, he earned his PhD in 2010 and his Habilitation in 2019. As Rector, he has modernized the university’s academic offer, strengthened its international partnerships, and advanced quality assurance by aligning institutional processes with national and European higher education standards while promoting stakeholder engagement. His academic expertise includes strategic and digital marketing, marketing research, consumer behavior, as well as academic and educational management. He is the author or co-author of over 100 scientific publications and contributor to numerous research projects.

Andy Pușcă is a distinguished Romanian academic leader, legal scholar, and higher education innovator who has shaped the evolution of Danubius University for more than two decades. He currently serves as President of the Board and previously held the position of Rector (2012–2020), guiding the university through major phases of modernization, internationalization, and strategic development.

A graduate of both Administrative Sciences (SNSPA) and Legal Sciences (Danubius University)—each completed as valedictorian—Andy Pușcă earned his PhD in Law from the Romanian Academy’s Institute of Legal Sciences. His academic expertise spans Civil Law, Roman Law, Academic Ethics, and he has taught and mentored generations of students in these fields.

His influence extends far beyond the university. Internationally, he served as Second Vice President and Advisory Council Member of the Association of the Universities of Asia and the Pacific (AUAP) and Vice President of AGAUC (USA). He is also a Visiting Professor at Daffodil International University (Bangladesh) and a frequent Guest Speaker at global academic events, including the e‑Talk Conference organized by DIU in collaboration with WAAS and AUAP.

Nationally and regionally, he is deeply involved in innovation ecosystems, serving as President of multiple strategic clusters—Green Solutions, Health, IT&C, and River Transport—reflecting his commitment to connecting academia with economic and social development. He also leads the HECSI Association (Higher Education Consortium for Social Innovation) and contributes to numerous professional and academic boards.

A prolific EU-funded Projects manager and expert in educational innovation, Andy Pușcă has coordinated or contributed to a wide range of European-funded projects (FP7, POSDRU, POCU, Leonardo, LLP, TEMPUS), focusing on curriculum development, social innovation, digital transformation, and student career development. His work demonstrates a consistent dedication to quality assurance, international cooperation, and the advancement of higher education.

Through his leadership, academic work, and international engagement, Andy Pușcă continues to promote a vision of higher education rooted in excellence, innovation, and global collaboration.

Dr. Coralia-Adina Cotoraric

Rector, Vasile Goldis West University of ARAD

Dr. Steve O. Michael’s Bio

Danubius International University

Adding to his vast international experience, Dr. Steve O. Michael currently serves as the Rector and CEO of Danubius International University (DIU), Romania, where he has been the Vice President of the University’s Administrative Board since 2015.

Before this appointment, Dr. Michael was the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU), a California-based private, non-profit, medical and health sciences University in partnership with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). During his 7-year tenure under the Carlisle Administration, Dr. Michael was instrumental in leading Charles R. Drew University through visionary strategic planning that resulted in an unprecedented campus growth, academic program expansion, and complete program and institutional accreditation, financial stability, curricular transformation, effective shared governance, restoration of Graduate Medical Education (GME), foundational plans for an additional medical education program, and astounding national rankings and recognition, to mention a few.

Dr. Michael was the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Arcadia University, where he served for 5 years. Under the Greiner’s Administration at Arcadia, Dr. Michael led the University through two strategic planning initiatives that resulted in the expansion of international programming, enrollment growth, academic program expansion, and the establishment of the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Health Sciences, the School of Global Business, the School of Education, and the School of Continuing Studies.

At Kent State University, where he spent most of his career, Dr. Michael rose through the ranks to full professor and Vice Provost in charge of the University Diversity Program, Undergraduate Studies, International Affairs, and Faculty Professional Development. As a professor, Dr. Michael directed over 20 doctoral dissertations and several theses on topics that ranged from TQM in higher education, financing higher education, internationalization of higher education, to college presidents’ effectiveness. His leadership advanced Kent State’s diversity agenda at the national level, enhanced diversity education in the undergraduate curriculum, established Kent State’s China Office, revamped Kent State’s Geneva Program, and expanded professional development programming for faculty, among other things.

Professor Michael was one of the principal founders of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) and its first Vice President and Interim President. He was also one of the principal founders of the Association of Chief Academic Officers (ACAO)—the national association of provosts and chief academic officers in the United States. Dr. Michael was a co-founder and President of the Association for the Global Advancement of Universities and Colleges (AGAUC)—an association dedicated to internationalization of higher education.

Dr. Michael is a professor of higher education management with research interests that include the application of business strategies to institutional management, entrepreneurial higher education, and globalization of higher education. He has published widely in most of the leading international and national refereed journals in the field of higher education on topics such as diversity in higher education, cost reduction analysis and financial constraints in higher education, presidency and trusteeship, academic program reviews and discontinuation, and marketing of higher education. He is an active presenter at international conferences and a consultant on higher education issues.

Dr. Michael was a British/Canadian Commonwealth Scholar and the first recipient of the Sheffield Award for the best article published in the Canadian Journal of Higher Education. His awards include the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education, the Outstanding Faculty Award from Phi Beta Delta, the Dean’s Awards for professional achievements, and a letter of recognition from the Governor of Alaska.

He was a guest professor at the European Peace University in Austria, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics (JUFE), Nanchang, and Beijing Wuzi University in China. For several years, he served as the Liaison Officer for the Educational Management Association of South Africa. On the invitation of the former Minister of Education of Moldova, he was the first keynote speaker at the country’s inaugural international conference on Higher Education. Dr. Michael served on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Educational Management – the leading international refereed journal on education management; the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Diversity; and as the associate editor of the Journal of Research in Education. He served as a reviewer of USAID/ALO international development grants and sat on the

Board of Project GRAD of Akron, Ohio. His book, entitled “Financing Higher Education in a Global Market,” draws attention to the critical issue of finance in higher education.

Dr. Michael earned his doctorate from the University of Alberta, Canada. He is a graduate of Harvard Institutes for Higher Education and a trained accreditation consultant-evaluator by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Professor Michael was an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University with extended training at the University of Bath and City University of London, United Kingdom. In recognition of his works around the Black Sea region, Dr. Michael was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Danubius University, Galati, Romania, and, of recent, appointed to the membership of the American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences (ARA). His wide-ranging international background extends from Sub-Saharan Africa to Sub-Arctic Alaska. Professor Michael is a retired volunteer soccer coach and a golf enthusiast.