Chancellor Thom Reilly – Nevada System of Higher Education

Dr. Thom Reilly
Chancellor

The chancellor is appointed by the Board of Regents to serve as chief executive officer for the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). He supervises the eight NSHE presidents and ensures the Board of Regents policies are implemented throughout the system. As chancellor, he is the System liaison with the governor, state legislators, and other public officials and community leaders.

Dr. Thom Reilly was appointed by the Board to serve as NSHE’s chancellor starting August 2017. Prior to his appointment, he served as director of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University where he also was a professor in the School of Public Affairs. He currently is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and professor emeritus at San Diego State University.

He previously served five years as county manager for Clark County and was vice chancellor of the NSHE Health Sciences System.

Reilly has extensive experience in the private sector, serving as managing principal of The Reilly Group, a management consulting firm and as former vice president of social responsibility at Caesars Entertainment, Inc. He has held senior administrative positions with the State of Nevada, overseeing income maintenance programs and the statewide child welfare system. He also was a former director and professor for the School of Social Work at San Diego State University.

Reilly has authored numerous published works on public pay and benefits, governance, HIV, and child welfare. He and his work have appeared on NPR’s “Here and Now,” PBS NewsHour, CNN Money, and Fox Business News, and in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Law 360, Governing, Businessweek and The Associated Press. He is co-editor of the Ethics, Corruption and Governance Series for Rowman & Littlefield Lexington Books. A complete listing of his books and publications, as well as his detailed CV, can be found at www.thomreillypublications.com.