SJC President Dr. Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D., has been named to the 2021 City & State New York Higher Education Power 100 and Long Island Press Power List. Both lists recognize influential leaders for their commitment and impact in their respective fields.
Listed among college and university leaders from peer institutions, as well as public officials and philanthropists, Dr. Boomgaarden ranked No. 61 on City & State New York’s Higher Education Power 100 list. The 2021 Long Island Press Power List showcases a ranking of fellow higher education presidents, elected officials, CEOs, business owners and industry leaders.
“I am extremely honored to be selected alongside so many prestigious leaders appearing in these rankings as well,” Dr. Boomgaarden said. “We have weathered an incredible storm, and we are now entering into a new, and much more positive phase.
“We have emerged stronger, and more resilient,” he continued. “I know we will take what we have learned over the past year and build a brighter future, not only for our students, but for all the members of our community.”
Dr. Boomgaarden is the eighth president of SJC and under his leadership, SJC is adding new academic programs, making improvements to our campuses and planning to build a new multi-million dollar state-of-the-art student center at SJC Long Island.
Dr. Boomgaarden makes frequent media appearances as an industry leader in higher education and serves on the board of trustees for the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU); Board Chair of the Association of Colleges of Sisters of St. Joseph (ACSSJ); steering committee member of the Long Island Regional Advisory Council on Higher Education (LIRACHE), where he is also chair to the Superintendents and College President’s Partnership; and as chair of the Lower Hudson Valley Consortium of Catholic Colleges and Universities.
He has been named one of the most influential Brooklynites by “Brooklyn Power 100” for two consecutive years. Dr. Boomgaarden is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music at Rochester University and also studied at the University of Vienna, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He graduated from Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education and is a noted historian of opera, music aesthetics and harmonic theory.
