Emad Rahim

Dr. Emad Rahim is an award-winning author, educator and entrepreneur. He currently serves as the Kotouc Family Endowed Chair and Professor at Bellevue University and Dean of Social Impact at Claremont Lincoln University. 

He is also a MLE Harvard Fellow, Fulbright Recipient and TEDx Speaker. He was the former Dean at Colorado Tech and Strayer University, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Oklahoma State University and Syracuse University, and Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University.
 

Emad Rahim is a Khmer American who was born in a concentration camp in the Killing Fields of Cambodia. He arrived in the United States with his family as a refugee living in Brooklyn New York and was raised in Syracuse NY. After struggling with street violence, gangs, drugs, poverty, family abuse and dyslexia as an adolescent, he found his way through higher education to become an award-winning educator, entrepreneur, author and community leader. Academic Background Despite barely graduating from high school, Rahim has earned several influential academic accolades, including advanced post-doctoral credentials from Harvard University, Tulane University, and the University of Maryland/UC. 

He was awarded a Post-Doctorate Diploma from Freeman School of Business and deemed Academically Quality (AQ) from AACSB in marketing and management. He received a Doctorate of Management and two graduate degrees in business from Colorado Technical University, and completed his undergraduate education at SUNY Empire State College. He was awarded an honorary PhD from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and an Associate degree from SUNY Onondaga Community College for his academic achievements. 

He founded the Project Management Center of Excellence at Bellevue University and Venture Connect at Morrisville State College, where he was a Kaufmann Foundation eProfessor in the School of business and entrepreneurship. Rahim was appointed as the Distinguished Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Oklahoma State University and Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University and Syracuse University. A former University Dean for the College of Business at Colorado Technical University, he helped led the school through ACBSP accreditation and achieved SHRM alignment, MBA rankings from CEO Magazine and listings in the Financial Times, and was awarded additional accreditation from GAC-PMI. 

Rahim also served as a Curriculum Dean at Strayer University and Co-founded and served as the Chief Learning Officer at Global i365 LLC, Co-founded and served as President of the Human Service Association of Central New York, Co-founded the CNY Inclusion Conference and served as Associate Partner of Innovative Development Inc of CNY. He is also a former Fellow at The Saylor Foundation, Beyster Institute, MLE at Harvard Graduate School of Education, MFP Booth School of Business, The Refractive Thinker and Intellectbase International Consortium, and distinguished membership at Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Coleman Foundation (awarded grants), served on the Board of Directors Contact Community Services, Good Life Youth Foundation, Syracuse First, Alliance of Community Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) and the South Side Innovation Center. Short Documentary “Against the Odds” Emad Rahim is a Khmer American and survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields whose life was turned into the short documentary “Against the Odds”: (F.A.M.E.’US International Film Festival’s 2016 Bronze Award Winner), and adapted into a theatre production titled “Tales from the Salt City,” which is an extension of the acclaimed Undesirable Elements series written by celebrated playwright and Presidential National Medals of Arts Award recipient, Ping Chong. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, Rutgers’ The Humanist, Forbes, CEO Magazine, WorldClass Magazine, and The Post Standard and covered by BBC and NPR.
 

Rahim explains the story that inspired his vision and drive in a recent interview with IntelligentHQ, 

"My education was very nontraditional. I discovered my passion for higher education later on in life. In public school, I struggled with dyslexia, poverty and violence. I spent much of my elementary school years in special education. In high school, I was always a grade behind and got into a lot of fights. I barely graduated high school. My grades were not good enough for any private universities. I did not have the money to take any tutoring for the SAT or had established any professional relationships to acquire recommendation letters. 

My only option was community college. At the community college, I struggled and was ready to give up. I was trying to balance my work and family obligations with the school. In addition, my learning disability and lack of drive caused my GPA to drop and I was placed on academic probation. I was fortunate enough to discover nontraditional education and online learning which propelled my academic success and career. 

Fast forward 16 years later since I started community college, I have earned two undergraduate degrees, two master's, and a doctorate degree and completed my post-doctoral studies at the University of Maryland University College, Tulane University and will be attending Harvard University’s post-doctoral seminar this summer."