Félix Matos Rodríguez

Chancellor

The City University of New York

Chancellor Matos Rodríguez’s distinguished career spans both academia and the public sector: He is a scholar, teacher, administrator and former cabinet secretary for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Prior to his appointment as Chancellor, Dr. Matos Rodríguez was president of CUNY’s Queens College from 2014 to 2019 and of CUNY’s Eugenio María de Hostos Community College in the Bronx from 2009 to 2014, making him one of a select few U.S. educators who has led both a baccalaureate and a community college. Dr. Matos Rodríguez has used his extensive regional and national networks and board memberships to advance the visibility and recognition of CUNY. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chancellor was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023. He serves as co-chair of the New York City Future of Workers Task Force by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, having also served as a co-chair of Adams’ mayoral transition team. In 2023, the Chancellor was elected to serve as vice chair of the American Council of Education’s (ACE) board of directors, 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. A former chair of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), he continues to serve on the steering committee for HACU’s Leadership Academy. In 2021, he joined the board of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY) and was named co-chair of the New York City Regional Economic Development Council (NYCREDC). He also serves on the boards of Phipps Houses and the United Way of New York City, and he is a member of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools steering committee. A cum laude 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, and was affiliated with the history department at the CUNY Graduate Center. At Hunter, he also directed the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, one of the largest and most important Latino research centers in the United States. Read Less From 2006 to 2008, Matos Rodríguez served as Puerto Rico’s Cabinet secretary of the Department of Family Services. In this position, he formulated public policy and administered service delivery in such programs as Child Support Enforcement, Adoption and Foster Care, and Child and Elderly Protection. He oversaw a $2.3 billion budget and over 11,000 employees. Earlier, he had been Senior Social Welfare and Health Advisor to the Governor of Puerto Rico. The Chancellor received the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association and his work has been published in such peer-reviewed journals as the Journal of Urban History, The Public Historian, Latin American Research Review, Centro Journal, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, and the Boletín de la Asociación de Demografía Histórica, in addition to having chapters in several anthologies. He was the founding editor of the series New Directions in Puerto Rican Studies, published by the University Press of Florida. He is married to Dr. Liliana M. Arabía, a dentist, and they have two sons.