Joyce McConnell
President, Colorado State University
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ULI Colorado- WLI Leadership Connection with President McConnell
The Leadership Connection Series is a program offered through ULI Colorado’s Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) and provides opportunities for leading women in business to candidly share their career story, lessons learned and advice for future women leaders. We invite you to join us for this virtual event featuring a conversation with President Joyce McConnell, who will embark on candid conversation regarding her personal and professional journey and what she has learned from first-hand experience.
About President McConnell:
Joyce McConnell is Colorado State University’s 15th president, the first woman to serve in that role. Like her, the story of how she ended up leading one of the nation’s premiere land-grant universities isn’t entirely what you might expect. Fresh out of high school in Maryland, Joyce wasn’t quite ready for college. Instead, she spent four years working sound for DC-area rock concerts. That gave her a front-row seat for some of the most transformative events of the era, including the March on Washington, Watergate and the Vietnam War protests. “You could really begin to understand your importance as a citizen,” she says.
Joyce McConnell is Colorado State University’s 15th president, the first woman to serve in that role. Like her, the story of how she ended up leading one of the nation’s premiere land-grant universities isn’t entirely what you might expect. Fresh out of high school in Maryland, Joyce wasn’t quite ready for college. Instead, she spent four years working sound for DC-area rock concerts. That gave her a front-row seat for some of the most transformative events of the era, including the March on Washington, Watergate and the Vietnam War protests. “You could really begin to understand your importance as a citizen,” she says.
When
she decided it was time, Joyce headed to Washington state and Evergreen
State College, where she got her B.A. Then she moved back east and
earned her law degree at Antioch Law School. She was named a graduate
teaching fellow at Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned
her Master of Laws degree. It was there her passion for higher education
really took hold. After faculty positions in New York and Maryland, she
joined the West Virginia University College of Law faculty, and quickly
rose to positions of leadership – appointed dean of the law college in
2008, then provost of the university in 2014.
A passionate
learner and educator who cares deeply for people, Joyce is a tireless
advocate for access, equity and inclusion and committed to the success
of CSU and its land-grant mission. As she says, “We are in the business
of transforming lives."