Senior Consultant

John Jasinski, Ph.D.

Specialties

Strategy (planning and execution, organizational culture and transformation, operational and financial effectiveness, organizational assessment and data/information systems, change management)

Leadership (development, onboarding, leadership system alignment, shared governance)

Institutional capacity (external relations and fundraising; academic planning and execution; student, stakeholder and workforce systems; partnership development; integrated and value-added accreditation approaches; preparing for, and leading through crises)

OVERVIEW

Married with four children and a dog, Dr. John Jasinski has served as president of Northwest Missouri State University since 2009 – where student success, profession-based learning and strategic partnerships serve as the foundation for all things. Northwest’s sustained performance and institutional viability are widely acknowledged as being the norm.*

Jasinski is results-oriented through systems and growth mindset approaches. In addition to 13 years of presidential leadership, Jasinski served two years as a chief academic and operating officer; nine years as a small business owner consulting organizations on matters of organizational excellence across the education, manufacturing, service, non-profit, and health care sectors; and 15 years as a faculty member and academic administrator. Service in a variety of national and state leadership positions has allowed for gaining significant education growth and engagement opportunities; understanding key educational issues across institutional types; assuming a front row seat to statewide policy-making, needs and gaps; and an understanding of what it takes to execute and yield results in a practical and high integrity manner.

* Northwest’s sustained performance and institutional viability are widely acknowledged as being the norm: Two consecutive years of record enrollment. The only public institution in the state with enrollment growth during the last five years. Record retention rates. A graduation rate at the 90th percentile of our peers. Equity gaps beginning to close. Affordability being in the top one-third of peers and ranked in the top 23 percent of public institutions nationally for affordability. The best university in the state regarding student job placement. On all scales and all but two questions, Northwest achieved higher student satisfaction rates than national and regional peer comparison groups for both freshmen and juniors (2021 Ruffalo Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Survey), with 80 percent of all Northwest students reporting they would repeat their Northwest experience, compared to 78 percent of students at regional peers and 76 percent of students surveyed nationally at their respective institutions. One of only five institutions nationally selected to join the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) pilot cohort focused on student success strategies, a grant-funded program through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Earning national Excellence and Innovation Awards, presented by AASCU, five times during the last seven years, most recently in fall 2021 for our COVID-19 pandemic response. Extensive work on creating a diverse and equitable Northwest, including implementing an Inclusive Excellence framework. Focused on employment during the pandemic, one of the Missouri institutions to not invoke layoffs, furloughs, or reductions in force throughout the pandemic. A complete financial turnaround since 2009 – being placed on our accreditor’s financial watch list as I arrived in 2009 but now the second-healthiest institution in the state. Generating $87.7 million in cost containment and efficiencies between 2012 and 2019. Extremely high debt levels cut in half since 2009. Alternative revenues increasing since 2016. The most efficient among state universities for state appropriations per degree and certificate granted. Steering through the pandemic in a strengthened financial position. A successful Forever Green comprehensive campaign that included raising $55 million against a $45 million goal and raising more than $73 million since 2009 – with the institution’s total since 1905 being more than $130 million. More than 60 national championships in academics and athletics since 2009. Economic impact of $617.5 million and strengthened community relations as witnessed through unparalleled university, city and county growth during the past decade. Innumerable partnerships advancing academic quality. Numerous other national and state distinctions.

SERVICE HIGHLIGHTS

  • AASCU: Member, Postsecondary Value Commission Taskforce; leadership mentor, New President’s Academy; member, Committee on Student Success; past member, Board of Directors; past leadership mentor, Executive Leadership Academy; past member, State Council of Representatives; past member, presidential search committee; past member and chair, Professional Development Committee
  • Baldrige Performance Excellence Program: Member, Board of Overseers; past member and chair, panel of judges; personal coach, Executive Coaching Program; innumerable roles over the last three decades including completing a faculty sabbatical
  • Coordinating Board of Higher Education/Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development: Past member, Commissioner’s Advisory Group; past co-lead, statewide diversity, equity and inclusion data gathering; past member, Talent for Tomorrow Task force; past member, Coordinated Plan Steering Committee on the Blueprint for Higher Education; past member, Complete College America Alliance of States Statewide team; past member, National Governor’s Association Policy Academy Statewide Team; past member, State of Missouri Performance Funding Task Force
  • Kansas City Area Development Council: Past member, Board of Directors
  • Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association: Member, CEO Council; Chair, Risk Management Task Force; past member, Marketing Task Force and Expansion Project Team
  • Missouri Council on Public Higher Education: CEO Council member and former chair and vice chair for two separate terms
  • Foundations, Chambers and the like: Past member – Hawthorn Foundation, Heartland Foundation, Missouri Chamber of Commerce, Missouri Quality Award, Northland Center for Advanced Professional Studies, SSM Health St. Francis Hospital – Maryville

HONORS

  • Commitment to Diversity Award, Faculty Senate Meritorious Award (in recognition of fostering an inclusive, caring, innovative, passionate, and student-centered focus at Northwest), TRIO Champion Award, University Service Award (Northwest Missouri State University)
  • Fundraising Excellence Award (Northwest Missouri State University Foundation)
  • Icon of Education Award (Ingram’s Business Magazine of Kansas City)
  • Always Ready, Always There Award (Missouri National Guard)
  • Excellence in Education Award (Northland Kansas City Regional Chamber of Commerce)
  • Service Commendation (U.S. Department of Commerce)
  • Honorary member, Kappa Kappa Psi (National Honorary Band Fraternity)
  • Member, National Society of Collegiate Scholars (Honor Society)
  • National Broadcast Adviser of the Year (College Media Advisors)

MOTTOS

Jasinski’s life motto comes from the late Pittsburgh Pirates great Roberto Clemente, who said, paraphrased, a day that goes by without helping someone is a day wasted. He also champions the words of the late civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis, “We must be headlights, not taillights.”

Education

Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln

M.A., B.A.A., Central Michigan University

 

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