Lew Collens is President Emeritus of Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Collens served as the university’s seventh president from 1990 to 2007. Prior to his presidency he served 16 years as dean and Professor of Law at IIT’s Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Collens currently serves as Senior Advisor at The Chicago Community Trust. He sits on the boards of AMSTED Industries Incorporated, The Colson Group, Advance Illinois, The Civic Consulting Alliance, the Pritzker Family Foundation, S&C Foundation, and the Tawani Foundation. He is also a member of the Rush University Board of Overseers.
Over the course of his careers he has served more than thirty organizations, including: Dean Foods, Alion Science and Technology, American Law Institute, Chicago Bar Foundation, Chicago Education Alliance, Partnership for New Communities, Leadership Greater Chicago, Economic Club of Chicago, Association of Independent Technological Universities, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, The Latin School of Chicago, the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors, All Cell Technology, and the Chicago Council on Science & Technology.
Prior to joining the academic world he practiced law in Chicago and Washington, D.C., co-founded Bar/Bri Educational Publishing Company, and served as a corporate controller.
He received his law degree in 1966 from the University of Chicago, where he served on the University of Chicago Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He also served as a Law and Humanities Fellow at Harvard Law School from 1973-1974. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois.
Collens is a life long Chicagoan, where he lives with his wife Marge. They have one son, Steven.