biographical sketch of the commissioner

Dr. Jack R. Warner began work as Commissioner of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education on July 8, 2002. Dr. Warner has been an educator for 34 years, primarily in the Massachusetts higher education system. He was most recently Associate Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with responsibilities for strategic planning, change management, enrollment planning, labor relations and campus leadership development. Before that, he spent nearly five years as Vice Chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, the state coordinating board for 15 community colleges, 9 state colleges and 5 campuses of the University of Massachusetts.

He brings to Rhode Island experience that spans all sectors of public higher education and an agenda designed to strengthen the state's public higher education system through data-driven discussion and decision-making. Warner spent 17 years as Dean of Student Affairs at Bristol Community College in Fall River, Massachusetts. He is a past president of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and a member of the New England Student Affairs Think Tank. He has taught courses in the Boston College Graduate School of Education for the past 11 years.

Warner's vision for Rhode Island calls for "a strong state public higher education system designed to provide opportunities for increasing numbers of Rhode Island's residents to earn college degrees, thereby attaining the sophisticated skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in our information-age economy."

Warner points out: "The links between a highly educated citizenry and the strength of the state's economy and quality of life are clearer now than at anytime in the nation's history. This means that the system of higher education in Rhode Island must concentrate on improving the overall educational attainment of our residents to ensure that everyone can contribute to and derive the benefits from today's knowledge-based economy and way of life."

Dr. Warner holds a Doctor of Education-Educational Administration from Boston College, a Master of Education from Springfield College in Guidance and Psychological Services/Student Personnel Services in Higher Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Vermont.

 

 

 

Last Updated September 22, 2003