Dr. Jo Allen, the retiring president of Meredith College, enjoys the administrative part of higher ed. She enjoys being able to see how budgets function, how admissions and financial aid operate, and how campus security is run. She enjoys being able to understand how higher ed works beyond just the academic parts.
“I like the problem-solving,” Allen says. “I like being able to work with students, faculty, and colleagues in a different kind of way [that] made me more aware of the community of higher education and not just a department, class, or advising relationship with a student. To me, it felt bigger.”
Dr. Jo Allen
Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Meredith before going on to attain a master’s degree from East Carolina University and a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University, both in English literature.
Then, after more than a decade of faculty work at East Carolina University, where she served as a tenured associate professor of English, she got her first taste of being a full-time administrator by becoming an American Council on Education Fellow at the University of Virginia.
Spurred on by this interest in universities’ inner workings, Allen went on to eventually lead in an administrative capacity as senior vice president and provost at Widener University before returning to Meredith as its leader in July 2011. This return etched Allen all the more into the history of Meredith. It made her the first alumna to be president of the private women’s liberal arts college in its 130-year history.
Under her watch, Meredith has blossomed. From the creation of advising and professional development programs to the construction and renovation of several campus facilities, Allen’s tenure has proven fruitful.
