in co-founding the Voluntary System of Accountability – which was designed to enable institutions to demonstrate their voluntary commitment to publishing access, cost, and student outcomes measures for the benefit of the public, prospective students, and lawmakers. The VSA has since evolved into a data analytics tool for universities to improve their strategic planning and decision making. Building on those efforts, APLU co-founded the Student Achievement Measure (SAM) in 2014 to provide a more complete understanding of student success at universities. SAM was created to address flawed federal education data that only counts first-time, full-time students who receive federal financial aid. Another focus of McPherson's leadership has been the expansion of community and economic engagement efforts. In 2013, APLU launched the Innovation and Economic Prosperity (IEP) Designation and Awards program to recognize universities that are leaders in spurring and promoting regional economic development. Participating institutions complete a rigorous self-study process and earn the IEP designation if enough benchmarks are met. More than 60 universities have received the designation. His leadership of APLU has also included a permanent partnership with the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) in an effort to incubate and promulgate the reforms necessary to help public urban research universities best serve their rapidly changing student populations. USU works with these institutions to pilot, refine, and share the most effective practices to accelerate innovation across higher education. Its work is centered on recruiting, admitting, retaining, and graduating high‐need, traditionally at‐risk students while reducing costs, reexamining campus business models, and fostering mutually beneficial campus‐community engagements. Other activities McPherson continues his strong commitment to agriculture and health in the developing world. He was a founding co-chair of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa. He served as the founding chair of the HarvestPlus Project Advisory Board (PAC) for 15 years, and was the Chair of the board of IFDC for 10 years. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. He was a member of the International Board of Advisors of Komatsu Company, a Japanese equipment manufacturer. He served on the board of Conservation International. McPherson is also a member of Washington D.C. based think tank the Inter-American Dialogue. BIFAD Chair McPherson was appointed in 2002 by President George W. Bush as the chairman to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD). BIFAD advises USAID on the topics of