Joe Zolner has been affiliated with the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) for more than 25 years.  From 2018 to 2025, he served as Adjunct Lecturer on Education.  From 1999 to 2018, he was both a Lecturer on Education and Senior Director of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education (HIHE), a position that included service as Educational Chair of the Management Development Program, Educational Chair of the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians, Educational Chair of Library Leadership in a Digital Age, Educational Co-Chair of the Institute for Educational Management, and responsibility for the quality, relevance, and variety of executive education programs offered by HGSE for the higher education community.  He also served as Educational Chair of the United Board Fellows Program offered at HGSE from Summer 2017 through Summer 2019.  During his many years of HIHE-related work, Zolner taught and collaborated with thousands of higher education leaders from multiple types of institutions throughout the world and from a broad range of administrative and leadership positions. 

Prior to his work at Harvard University, Zolner served as Director of the Graduate Management Institute at Union College and Director of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Northeastern University.  He has also held appointments as Assistant Dean of the College at Dartmouth College and Assistant Dean of Students and Assistant Director of Admissions at Union College.  Zolner also worked for Goodmeasure, Inc., a corporate consulting firm focused on innovation, creativity, and the management of strategic organizational change that served a Fortune 100 client base. 

Zolner received a Doctor of Education degree in higher education and a Master of Education degree in administration, planning, and social policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Master of Public and Private Management degree from the Yale School of Management, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Union College.  His interests include leadership, the higher education curriculum change process, higher education governance, team effectiveness, and higher education leadership development.