Jo Ann Gora began serving as Ball State University's 14th president in August 2004. She is making immersive learning the cornerstone of every Ball State student's college experience. During the 2008-09 academic year, more than 2,700 Ball State students completed 160 immersive learning projects throughout Indiana under the mentoring of faculty from 35 academic departments.
Gora has led an update of Ball State's strategic plan, which is the basis for the university's capital campaign, Ball State Bold: Investing in the Future. It will raise $200 million by 2011. In May, she earned the Mira Trailblazer Award from TechPoint for her significant and lasting contributions to technology innovation in Indiana.
Gora was one of the 12 charter signatories to the American College and Universities Presidents Climate Commitment in December 2006. In May, Gora and other officials broke ground on the largest geothermal district energy system in the United States. When completed, that system will heat and cool more than 40 buildings on Ball State’s 660-acre campus, saving the university $2 million a year while reducing its carbon footprint by nearly half.
She was named one of 2007’s most influential women in Indiana by the Indianapolis Business Journal, and was one of 15 “Women of Wonder” in the spring 2008 issue of Indiana Minority Business Magazine. In 2005, she received the Torchbearer Award from the Indiana Commission for Women and the Sagamore of the Wabash. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yeungnam University in South Korea.
She is Indiana's representative to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities board and is one of the 57 presidents and chancellors on The New York Times/Chronicle of Higher Education higher education cabinet. She chairs the Mid-American Conference Presidents’ Council and co-chairs the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. She serves on the boards of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, First Merchants Bank, and Ball Memorial Hospital.