OUR COMMUNITY

26 | JUNE 24 • 2021 

A

pproaches to higher 
education alterna-
tives as affected by 
COVID-19 confront Alan 
Drimmer as he moves into the 
presidency of Cleary University 
July 1. Cleary is a nonprofit 
Michigan school established in 
1883.
Drimmer, whose career has 
placed him in Midwest educa-
tional posts after Mideast diplo-
matic assignments, is thinking 
through plans to accelerate 
programming that realistically 
prepares students for the job 
market and expands the com-
munity served by the university, 
which is based in Howell and 
has a Detroit center.
“I’m very excited to join the 
Cleary community and help 
build awareness for the good 
things Cleary is doing with the 
Cleary Mind, a trademarked 
program that needs more visi-
bility,
” Drimmer said of the uni-
versity centered in business arts.
“Cleary came to my attention 

because several years ago they 
developed a framework [the 
Cleary Mind] for the kinds of 
skills and competencies that 
people need in the workforce, 
and they used data to find out 
what people need to be suc-
cessful. A lot of that was not 
in the curriculum earlier, but 
they made a conscious effort to 
encapsulate that.
” 
Besides the knowledge spe-
cific to certain jobs, Cleary 
research found eight skill fac-
tors necessary for students to 
master regardless of the job 
direction each is pursuing: crit-
ical thinking, problem solving, 
creativity, communications, 
persuasion, entrepreneurship, 
leadership and ethics.
“I thought this was really 
innovative,
” said Drimmer, 
60, whose work as a higher 
education consultant included 
an affiliation with the Boston 
Consulting Group, which has a 
Detroit office. “Cleary rewired 
the whole curriculum to map 

it to these eight. These are not 
just things that we think are 
important. They’re important to 
employers.
” 
Cleary, founded in Ypsilanti, 
offers associate’s, bachelor’s and 
master’s degrees while focusing 
on personalized experiences 
that encompass sports and and 
other programs of community 
interest. The school is able to 
serve nearly 1,000 students in 
person and online — a number 

administrators are aiming to 
increase — and has a capacity 
of housing about 200 students.
Drimmer, raised in a 
Cleveland Jewish family com-
mitted to the Civil Rights 
Movement, understands the 
importance of accommodating 
personal interests as he looks 
back on his own educational 
and career choices. Interested 
in the Mideast as a teenager, he 
was allowed to live on a kibbutz 
during his 16th year. At the 
University of Chicago, political 
science was at the center of his 
bachelor’s, master’s and doctor-
al degrees.
“My focus was on the Arab-
Israeli wars, and that was the 
subject of my dissertation,
” said 
Drimmer, who became a Raoul 
Wallenberg Scholar at Hebrew 
University in Jerusalem and a 
Research Fellow at the Center 
for Arabic Study Abroad at the 
American University in Cairo. 
“I joined the foreign service and 
was a diplomat in Jordan rep-
resenting the State Department 
between the two Gulf Wars, 
and there was excitement and 
intrigue.
”
Back in the United States, he 
served as an international eco-
nomics sanctions officer for the 
Treasury Department before 
deciding to alter his profession-
al direction.

PIVOT TO EDUCATION
“I decided to pivot to edu-
cation because I wanted to 
make a change in the world,
” 
said Drimmer, whose father 
had taught history at Spelman 
College in Atlanta and 
Cleveland State University. “I 
believed — rightly or wrong-
ly — that my ability to impact 
foreign policy was very limited. 
However, I did think I could 
make an impact in education.
“My teachers at the 
University of Chicago made 

Diplomat turned educator will head local university.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

From the
Mideast
to the Midwest

Alan 
Drimmer

Cleary 
Campus

