More university governing boards are hiring presidents whose career achievements occurred outside of academia as the task of running universities becomes increasingly multifaceted, experts say.
Jackie Jenkins-Scott was intrigued by the idea of becoming a college president. Nevermind that she hadn’t held a fulltime university job before, and her entire administrative career had been spent in health care and social work. In her view, she’d already succeeded at improving the lives of young people. Why not try doing it through academia?
The longer she considered this while soul-searching in late 2003, the more sense it made.
Wheelock College trustees agreed. They hired her in July 2004 to lead the small, Boston private school specializing in teacher education, social work and child life programs.
“I was fortunate the timing worked out well, because I was prepared to interview for presidencies for much longer,” Jenkins-Scott says.
She is among a growing number of college presidents who aren’t professional scholars. Some have excelled in nonacademic spheres of higher education, such as law or finance. Others, like Jenkins-Scott, entered their presidencies as outsiders.
