Félix V. Matos Rodríguez

Félix V. Matos Rodríguez is the eighth Chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY) and his focus is on student access and equity across the University system. Matos Rodríguez, the first educator of color and the first Latino to lead the nation’s largest urban university, oversees a system of 25 colleges with an enrollment of over 243,000 degree-seeking students, and more than 185,000 adult and continuing education students.

He has advanced the University’s commitment to lifting students and graduates from all backgrounds up the socioeconomic ladder by erasing more than $100 million in owed tuition and ending the practice of withholding transcripts from students with unpaid balances. Further, Matos Rodriguez has raised additional funds to support single parents, undocumented students who were originally excluded from federal government relief programs, international students, students with disabilities, and students from foster care.

He has championed career pipelines for students and graduates through a series of public-private partnerships aimed at providing job opportunities, training initiatives, and apprenticeships for CUNY students.

The Chancellor was elected to serve as vice chair of the American Council of Education’s (ACE) board of directors in 2023, following two previous terms on the board; in 2020, he was named to ACE’s national task force focused on improving transfer of credit practices.

Prior to his appointment as Chancellor, Dr. Matos Rodríguez was president of CUNY’s Queens College and of CUNY’s Eugenio María de Hostos Community College in the Bronx.

A graduate in Latin American studies from Yale University, Matos Rodríguez received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. He has taught at Yale, Northeastern University, Boston College, the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, City College and Hunter College.