Leadership

Joanne M. Kossuth serves as Interim President of Lesley University, bringing more than 3 decades of senior leadership experience across higher education to the role. A Lesley alumna, she earned her Master of Science in Applied Management from Lesley and holds a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from the College of the Holy Cross. She has been a member of the Lesley community since 2020, serving most recently as the university’s Chief Operations Officer after first joining as Interim Chief Information Officer.

During her time at Lesley, Joanne has led major institutional initiatives spanning operations, technology, and strategic planning. She co-developed and implemented the university’s $100 million campus plan, guiding the renovation and optimization of Lesley’s three campuses. She designed a centralized support model to make student services easier to navigate, led the university’s digital transformation, and built a unified data and reporting structure to support data-informed decision making across the institution.

Joanne’s career reflects a deep commitment to higher education and to collaboration across institutions. She served as the founding Chief Information Officer for Olin College of Engineering, the first start-up college in the U.S. in more than 40 years, and later as its Vice President for Operations and Associate Vice President for Development, with responsibility for campus operations, planning, and institutional advancement. She also served as Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Information Officer at Mitchell College, and held leadership roles at Boston University, Wheelock College, and Fisher College. As principal of her own consulting practice, she has partnered with colleges and universities nationwide on strategy, organizational change, and operational transformation. A longtime leader in the field, Joanne has served on the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors, as Co-Dean of the EDUCAUSE Leading Change Institute, and as Chair of the NERCOMP Board of Directors, among many other national and regional roles.