UNLV President Carol C. Harter will receive the Educator of the Year award from the Asian Chamber of Commerce at its annual celebration of the Chinese New Year and Asian Community Achievement Awards dinner tonight (Feb. 22) at the Rio Hotel and Casino.

Also receiving the award is Dr. Keong Leong, professor and chair of management in UNLV's College of Business.

President Harter came to UNLV in 1995 following a successful six-year tenure as president of the SUNY Geneseo campus in New York. During her seven years at UNLV, she has guided the university toward its goal of becoming a premier metropolitan research university.

During her presidency, Dr. Harter has worked toward maximizing UNLV's value to the community and the entire state. She has guided the creation of Nevada's first School of Law and School of Dentistry and has presided over the development of an executive MBA program in the College of Business, a physical therapy program in the College of Health Sciences, and a multitude of other new academic programs and degrees.

Also during this time, UNLV has received more than $140 million in private gifts and has moved up in the national rankings by the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching to the status of Doctoral/Research University - Intensive.

The past seven years have seen significant growth of UNLV's student body, which now numbers some 24,000, and its physical plant, which added 16 new buildings during the period.

Dr. Harter represents the Mountain West Conference on the NCAA's Board of Directors and serves on its Football Oversight Committee.

Dr. Leong has been a member of the UNLV faculty since 2001. Previously he was a clinical associate professor at the American Graduate School of International Management and associate professor of operations management at The Ohio State University. He also held various management positions in engineering companies in Malaysia and Thailand.