Donald E. Heller retired in 2022 from the position of Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Professor of Education, at the University of San Francisco.  In that position he was responsible for the university's five schools, libraries, student life, enrollment management, branch campuses, online programs, and diversity and equity, overseeing units with approximately 1,500 employees and budgets of over $350 million. He is currently working part-time as an independent higher education consultant and with the consulting firm Higher Education Consolidation Solutions.

Prior to joining USF, he was Dean of the College of Education and a professor in the Department of Educational Administration at Michigan State University.  There he led one of the nation's top-ranked colleges of education with 150 faculty, 4,000 students, and a budget of over $60 million.  

His teaching and research is in the areas of educational economics, public policy, and finance, with a primary focus on issues of college access and choice for low-income and minority students.  He has consulted on higher education policy issues with university systems and policymaking organizations in California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Washington, Washington DC, and West Virginia, and has testified in front of Congressional committees, state legislatures, and in federal court cases as an expert witness.  

Before his appointment at Michigan State in January, 2012, he was Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education and professor of education and senior scientist at The Pennsylvania State University.  He also has held a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan.  Before his academic career, he spent a decade as an information technology manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Heller has published over 200 articles, book chapters and other publications, and his research has been published in scholarly journals including the Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Educational Policy, and The Journal of Student Financial Aid.  He has been interviewed by and his work has been reported on in media including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Times Higher Education, The Daily Telegraph, National Public Radio, CNN Headline News, and Marketplace Radio.  He is editor or co-editor of six books, including: Student Financing of Higher Education: A Comparative Perspective (with C. Callender, Routledge, 2013), The States and Public Higher Education Policy: Affordability, Access, and Accountability (Johns Hopkins University Press, second edition, 2011), and Generational Shockwaves and the Implications for Higher Education (with M. d'Ambrosio, Edward Elgar, 2009).  He has made over 250 presentations at scholarly conferences, policy and professional associations, and governmental organizations in ten countries around the world. In 2012 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of DePaul University, and in 2015, to the Board of Overseers of Bard College at Simon's Rock.

Dr. Heller received the 2002 Promising Scholar/Early Career Achievement Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the 2001 Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, for his contributions to the literature on student financial aid.  He earned an Ed.D. in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and holds an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Tufts University.