As a long time professional working within the field of higher education, Jill Landesberg-Boyle’s career has been full of opportunities, wonderful friendships made over the years, and the joy of working with hundreds of students who have touched my life. As a leader in higher education administration, I strive to make each day one in which I touch the life of a student in a positive way.
It is often said that experiential learning activities can provide transformative life experiences, which can shape career goals, improve educational outcomes, and facilitate student development. For Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle, this is not just a cliche. She found her career through the co-curricular experiences she had as an undergraduate resident assistant at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Although unaware at the time, she had taken her first steps into a job that would turn out to be a life-long passion and profession.
Dr. Boyle studied multicultural organizational development and applied group studies in graduate school. She instructed numerous courses in student development and diversity. As founding advisor and coordinator, she developed a co-curricular experience and credit-bearing course to comprise a new venture, the University of Massachusetts Residential Honors Program. her work provided the groundwork that enabled the program to flourish.
Upon earning her doctorate, she accepted a post at the University of Judaism, now the American Jewish University where she distinguished herself and was promoted after one year to dean of students. She then headed to Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU). where, as dean of students, Dr. Landesberg-Boyle oversaw a multi-million dollar division. She initiated new diversity efforts including programming on race relations, resident assistant cultural awareness training for and multicultural campus coalition sessions. Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle was the first white woman at SLU to be asked to be a faculty advisor by a historically black sorority, Zeta Phi Beta. While at Southeastern, she rewrote the institution’s Student Code of Conduct, was actively involved in alcohol education initiatives and assisted in the audit of federal regulatory compliance.
In 2005, Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle was named vice president at the Pennsylvania College of Technology (PCT). Part of the Pennsylvania State University system, PCT specializes in offering workforce and vocational programs in applied technology and confers certificates, associate and baccalaureate degrees. She significantly increased financial aid for students, oversaw the reconstruction of the fitness center, advanced community partnerships, and led a comprehensive assessment of institutional student learning outcomes.
In May of 2007, she was selected as the fourth president, and first female president, of Florida Keys Community College. The college had been placed on academic warning status in its last re-affirmation visit and enrollment was down to approximately 600 FTE, leaving many to question whether it could be sustained even with the most Herculean efforts. Not to be deterred, as one of her early critical actions, President Landesberg-Boyle began a recruitment strategy that turned the school into the fastest growing in the community college system. Some of her key initiatives included an award winning website, attracting millions of dollars to the small college, and outreach to federal sources. Support from new donors, competitive grant funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) agencies, and a significant congressional appropriation.
Many national and local partnerships were solicited, beginning with a key partnership with Raytheon Corporation featured in Florida Trend Magazine. She was very active in environmental concerns on campus, including participating in events, ensuring environmental building standards, initiating solar workforce development classes, and choosing a master plan featuring sustainable, native landscaping. She led the elevation of the marine science program which now attracts students from around the country.
A highlight of her work at FKCC was her legislative work with the Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on a $2.24 million federal appropriation to create a center for homeland port security with the Department of Defense.
Dr. Landesberg-Boyle improved faculty salaries an average of 20% in just two short years, provided health care support for partners of gay and lesbian employees, subsidized health care premiums for families for the first time in the college’s history, and provided holiday bonuses - all at a time when most colleges in the state were laying off.
