Dr. Harrison Keller is the Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of Higher Education for the State of Texas. With more than two decades of experience in education, he is a recognized innovator in policy and programs to improve college readiness and student success, especially for low-income and first-generation students.
Dr. Keller is the founder and was Principal Investigator of the OnRamps dual enrollment initiative that provides college-level courses to tens of thousands of high school students across the state of Texas, and the Texas OnCourse initiative that works with Governor Greg Abbott's Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative to improve secondary college and career advising across the state.
Before his current role, Dr. Keller wore many hats at The University of Texas at Austin. He served as the Deputy to the President for Strategy and Policy, as Vice Provost for Higher Education Policy and Research and as Executive Director of the Office of Educational Innovation and the Center for Teaching and Learning. Prior to that, Dr. Keller was Director of Research for the Texas House of Representatives and Senior Education Advisor for the Speaker of the Texas House.
Dr. Keller earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a Master and Doctor of Philosophy from Georgetown University. He has taught at Georgetown University, St. Edward’s University and the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Gena, live in Austin with their three children.
