As president of Western Kentucky University, Dr. Timothy Caboni has worked to increase the university’s retention and graduation rates and strengthen its emphasis on student-centeredness and applied research while growing partnerships throughout the state and beyond.

Caboni joined WKU as the institution’s tenth president in 2017. Since then, he has directed the development of a roadmap to steer the university’s growth over the next 10 years and overseen the launch of several new initiatives, including The First Year Village, home to living-learning communities where students with similar academic interests live together and a key instrument in raising the university’s first-year retention rate to a record high. Caboni also helped revamp WKU’s financial aid, making post-secondary education accessible for students of all backgrounds.

Before joining WKU, Caboni spent six years as the vice chancellor for public affairs at the University of Kansas. A native of New Orleans, he graduated from Louisiana State University before going on to receive his master’s from WKU and his Ph.D. in higher education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University.

Caboni is married to Kacy Schmidt Caboni and lives in Bowling Green.

For more about him and the work of Western Kentucky University, visit wku.edu.