CWU’s only female president reflects on her career and progress being made in higher ed

Jerilyn S. McIntyre didn’t set out to be the first female president of Central Washington University. Once she pivoted from her career in journalism to higher education, however, her drive and passion inspired her to follow a path toward leadership.

“When I started my career as a journalist at the McGraw Hill Publishing Company, I don’t think I had a clear road map in mind. I certainly didn't plan to go into higher education, at that point” said McIntyre, who served as CWU’s first and only female president from 2000-08. “After two years at McGraw Hill, I went back and got my teaching certificate, and started working at Chico State College.”

As the next steps along her career path started demanding higher and higher levels of education, McIntyre got her PhD in history and communication from the University of Washington, a choice she credits with providing her with the skills she would need to overcome the challenges that lay ahead of her.

“Being a communication major has been a huge help in my career,” she said. “Being able to communicate both interpersonally and organizationally is a big part of the job, especially when you’re crafting messages for both the public and the legislature. My history background helped as well, as I believe that it provides vital context for the challenges one might face.”

After completing her UW degree, McIntyre taught for four years at the University of Iowa, and then spent 23 years working for the University of Utah, advancing to the position of Vice President of Academic Affairs, and serving twice as Interim President. She was the first woman to hold either of those positions there. She found mentorship under former UU President Chase Peterson, and when the opportunity came to pursue the presidency at CWU, she tossed her hat in the ring.

“As the opportunities opened up from associate dean to associate vice president and so on, I found that in administration, I had the opportunity to do something helpful every day,” she said. “I enjoyed it the whole way through, though becoming a university president was never a goal I set for myself.”

McIntyre was hired by the CWU Board of Trustees and arrived in Ellensburg on July 1, 2000. She took charge of a university with declining enrollment, along with several opportunities to diversify its student population, as well as its faculty and staff ranks. She also found she needed to do some expectation-setting with the old guard.

“Early on in my presidency, I was talking to the academic senate, and they were full of questions about what I would do and when I would do it,” McIntyre said. “I remember saying ‘you’re going to have to understand one thing: I am your president, I am not your mother,’ which they understood right away. That ended up becoming a famous quote on campus. I meant it as a way of saying, ‘let’s work as a team.  I’m not going to solve all your problems.’”

Once that matter was settled, McIntyre went to work charting a course for the university’s evolution into the 21^st century.

“We brought the enrollment back, and each year I was able to say at the time that we had the largest, most academically prepared and most diverse incoming class in the school’s history,” she said. “We also got the entire campus involved in the strategic planning process and accomplished many of our goals faster than expected.”

In addition to expanding diversity among university students and personnel, McIntyre was intent on improving the partnership between CWU and the city of Ellensburg.

“The challenges before any university always include finding new ways to serve — not only in producing well-qualified graduates, but in being part of the community,” she said. “That was something we worked on a lot: being a good partner to the Ellensburg community.”

Along the way, McIntyre continued teaching, while also finding opportunities to advance female leadership through mentorship, as well as by any other avenue available. As she explained, it takes cumulative, sustained effort to bring about the kind of change necessary to foster gender equity at a higher education institution.

“My experience in nurturing the careers of women is that they often feel they can’t take that first leadership position because they may have other obligations in life — sometimes family; other times, something else,” she said. “That first job leads to the next, and so on. Far too often, what happens, in my experience, is that there aren’t enough women in positions as a department chair or dean, so they end up being passed over for vice president or president positions.”

McIntyre has since seen those barriers lessen one by one as the world rises to the challenges that were created by outdated norms.

“I think things are more enlightened now than they were in the ’90s, especially when it comes to accommodating individuals with family obligations,” she said. “My advice is to take the first job, get in the pool, get the experience, then be ready to be in the pipeline when the next opportunity comes along.”

Now that she is retired, living in Salt Lake City and writing and publishing her own books, McIntyre has time to reflect on a successful and rewarding career that saw her break many glass ceilings along the way.

In looking back on a career of firsts, of mentorship, and clear communication, she sees a landscape in constant evolution. While the work of making education and leadership accessible to anyone who seeks it is never over, she believes the progress that has been made is worthy of celebration, too.

“I was the first woman, or one of only a few women at every place I worked in higher education,” McIntyre said. “Women of my generation, even the ones who are slightly younger, are dealing with that all the time. I’m glad to see progress being made there, and I look forward to the day when we’re all on a level playing field.”