Dr. Ed Bonahue has served as President of Suffolk County Community College since 2021. Suffolk is the largest community college in the State University of New York system, serving nearly 30,000 credit and non-credit students each year. He is a seasoned higher education executive with nearly 30 years of experience in community college education, including service as a tenured faculty member, department chair, chief academic officer, and college president. Before serving at Suffolk, Dr. Bonahue served for over 20 years at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, FL, where he co-authored Santa Fe’s winning application for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence in 2015.
Under Dr. Bonahue’s leadership, Suffolk County Community College has grown enrollment by approximately 15% since 2021 and has added new or expanded programming in nursing, surgical technology, cybersecurity, automotive technology, advanced manufacturing, as well as a variety of career-facing micro-credentials. At the same time, the college has re-committed itself to open access, equity, student success through innovations including bilingual outreach and recruitment, strategic enrollment management planning, and a guaranteed transfer partnership with Stony Brook University. President Bonahue participates actively in regional economic and workforce development on Long Island, and he also currently serves as secretary of the New York Community College Association of Presidents (NYCCAP).
Dr. Bonahue holds a Ph.D. in early modern English literature and an M.A. in modern drama from the University of North Carolina, and a B.A. in English literature from Wake Forest University. His scholarly research on early modern literature has appeared in Studies in Philology, Renaissance Papers, English Language Notes, and elsewhere, and his essay on Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George has been reprinted repeatedly since its first publication. Most recently, he contributed an essay on intentional design and student success in the Winter 2026 issue of the NASPA Leadership Exchange.
