OUTSTANDING EDUCATORS OF THE YEAR 2013 PRESENTER
Jay Hershenson
Sr. Vice-Chancellor for University Relations & Secretary of the Board of Trustees, CUNY
Jay Hershenson is Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York. He has served as Vice Chancellor since 1984 and has worked in senior level administrative positions for six CUNY Chancellors and with over 100 CUNY trustees since the mid-1970’s.
Prior local, national and state-wide public service includes appointment by former President Jimmy Carter to the National Advisory Committee on Education; appointment by former Governor Hugh L. Carey as one of five Commissioners on the Temporary State Commission on the Future of Postsecondary Education and the Task Force on State Aid to Education.
He received an M.A. in Urban Studies and a B.A. in Communications, Arts and Sciences and University Administration from Queens College, CUNY, after transferring from Queensborough Community College, CUNY. He was an adjunct faculty member in the Hunter College and Queens College Departments of Political Science. In 1974, he was elected and re-elected in 1975 to serve as the Chairperson of the University Student Senate of CUNY and became the first elected student trustee on the University’s Board of Trustees.
Senior Vice Chancellor Hershenson has pioneered major public service partnerships between CUNY, media organizations, and corporate leaders. Together with former New York Daily News Editor-in-Chief Martin Dunn, he proposed and supervised eight “Citizenship Now!” call-ins over the last seven years, assisting close to 85,000 immigrants. He initiated the “Voting Rights and Citizenship” calendar and curricula project, partnering CUNY with The New York Times, JPMorgan Chase, TIAA-CREF and The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. He is the Senior Project Director for “Women’s Leadership,” “A Nation of Immigrants,” “Let Freedom Ring,” “City Life,” “Investing in Futures: Public Higher Education in America,” “Health in America,” and “The Unforgiving Economy” calendars and curricula, again with the Times, corporate and archival partners.
He is the Executive Producer of the Emmy Award winning television shows “Nueva York,” the CUNY-TV magazine program about Hispanic communities in New York City, “Study with the Best,” and the Emmy-nominated “Science & U!” His continuing collaborations with education colleagues, governmental officials, journalists, community leaders, and the business and labor communities are a “work in progress.” #
