91ÊÓƵ

Dr. Jess Boersma joined 91ÊÓƵ Pembroke as the vice chancellor for strategy, data analytics and institutional performance and chief of staff in June 2023 after serving in several key leadership roles at 91ÊÓƵ Wilmington for over two decades.

In addition to serving on the chancellor's cabinet, he is the Assistant Secretary to the 91ÊÓƵP Board of Trustees.

Before joining 91ÊÓƵP, Boersma served as associate dean for Student Success and Applied Learning at 91ÊÓƵW. He was also associate director for 91ÊÓƵW's Institute for Interdisciplinary Identity Sciences (I3S) and founding director of the university's Team for Interdisciplinary Global Research.

As a first-generation, low-income student, Boersma has dedicated his career to improving equitable access and degree completion. As an undergraduate, he stopped out to serve in the U.S. military as a Special Forces operator, where he conducted various humanitarian and development missions in Central and South America. Upon returning to Wisconsin, a faculty mentor helped him to study abroad for a year at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Boersma holds a PhD from Emory University and has earned degrees from three APLU member institutions as a student veteran and adult learner — a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, an MBA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a master's degree in business analytics from 91ÊÓƵW.

While at 91ÊÓƵW, he oversaw the university's Quality Enhancement Plan, which included managing funded applied learning projects in 35 out of 36 academic departments and deploying recovery grants in response to Hurricane Florence. He was the editor of two volumes on literature and society, guest editor for an applied learning journal, and the principal investigator on numerous grants with NSF, AAC&U, APLU, the CAA Academic Alliance, and the U.S. Department of State concerning applied learning, regional expertise and culture, student success and curriculum development.

A native of Waupun, Wisconsin, he and his wife, Caroline, have two children, Leo and Amelie.