Ray Thrower, director of safety and security at Gustavus Adolphus College, is serving as the 49th president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, Inc. (IACLEA). Thrower assumed this one-year volunteer leadership role July 1, 2007.
As president, Thrower will travel domestically and internationally on behalf of the organization, including a trip to South African colleges in August to assist with emergency management and incident command systems and a trip to China in May to engage with schools that are joining IACLEA.
A member of IACLEA since 1986, Thrower has served in numerous leadership and volunteer positions. He was the Mid-America regional director on the IACLEA Board of Directors. He is the board liaison to IACLEA’s Domestic Preparedness Committee, which oversees the association’s $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In addition, Thrower has served as president of the North Carolina Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators and the Minnesota Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.
Thrower has served in the public safety profession for nearly 30 years. He has been the director of safety and security at Gustavus since 1998. Prior to joining Gustavus, he was director of public safety and chief of police at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C. Before Davidson, Thrower served as director of public safety and chief of police for Queens University in Charlotte, N.C.
He has more than 20 years of experience overseeing and teaching in the areas of public safety, environmental health and safety, and fire safety. He serves as a master trainer for Kirkwood Community College and holds a Certification for the Community and College Consortium for Health and Safety Training (CCCHST). He is an adjunct faculty member at South Central College in the Department of Public Safety, Environmental Health, and Safety. He holds two national certifications — Firefighter II and a Level II Fire and Rescue Instructor. Thrower also serves as the North Central Regional Chair for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, University and College Police Section.
IACLEA is an association that advances campus public safety for its more than 1,100 educational institution members and 1,900 individual professional members by providing educational resources, advocacy, and professional development services. IACLEA is led by a board of directors and managed by a professional staff with headquarters in West Hartford, CT.
Thrower was installed by outgoing President Steven J. Healy of Princeton University on June 28, during IACLEA’s 2007 Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV.
In his acceptance speech, Thrower pledged to focus on expanding membership services, including the development of Web-based resources to assist campus public safety leaders. He also promised to work with others to strengthen partnerships with federal agencies and other stakeholders “to enhance campus public safety and secure our higher educational resources.”
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