its kind nationally and a model for a number of other institutions in subsequent years. Ruben served as Ph.D. Program Director from 1983 to 1993. He was promoted to full professor in 1980, and Distinguished Professor in 1987. Rutgers University – Center for Organizational Leadership In 1993, Ruben was asked by the Rutgers President to establish a university-wide initiative in Organizational Quality and Communication Improvement (now called the Rutgers Center for Organizational Leadership—(OL). The Center was created to provide professional consultation and programming for the university in the areas of organizational leadership, assessment, communication, planning, and development. Ruben led in the formation of resource-sharing partnerships between Rutgers and Johnson & Johnson and Rutgers and AT&T, and under his leadership, a number of books, and articles, and professional development materials were developed to apply concepts of organizational and leadership studies and best practices from business and healthcare to the higher education context. The Rutgers Center played a lead role in creating a national consortium to encourage networking and facilitate collaboration and learning across institutions. Other institutions involved in this effort included the University of California-Berkeley, Cornell University, the University of Missouri-Rolla, Penn State University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ruben became the first president of the organization—now named the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (NCCI) dedicated to this work. NCCI now has approximately 100 member institutions. Honors and special projects In 2018, Ruben was named the first recipient of The Baldrige Foundation National Leadership Excellence Award for Education for his accomplishments in advancing the Malcolm Baldrige organizational excellence philosophy within higher education. Ruben has received numerous awards in recognition of his scholarly and professional leadership, including the National Communication Association Gerald Phillips Award (2004), the Rutgers University Daniel Gorenstein Award (2000), the National Association for College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Professional Development Award (2003), and the U.S.A. Higher Education Quality Pioneer Award. He was also the first recipient of the Brent D. Ruben Leadership Award, created in his honor in 2006 and awarded annually by the National Consortium for Change and Continuous Innovation in Higher Education (NCCI) to recognize distinguished contributors to higher education. As Executive Director of the Center for Leadership, Ruben led in the development of a number of research and training programs including: The Rutgers Leadership Academy, Academic Leadership Programs for Rutgers - New Brunswick, and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (2017-), The Leaders of Tomorrow