About the Provost's Office

Mission

Our mission is Opportunitas. Pace University provides to its undergraduates a powerful combination of knowledge in the professions, real-world experience, and a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, giving them the skills and habits of mind to realize their full potential. We impart to our graduate students a deep knowledge of their discipline and connection to its community. This unique approach has been firmly rooted since our founding and is essential to preparing our graduates to be innovative thinkers who will make positive contributions to the world of the future.

Pace will always seek to relate its programs of professional education to the most important currents in those professions, capitalizing on its location in and around New York City to offer students real-world experience through internships and co-operative work experiences, using community service as a learning tool and employing problem-solving and other teaching techniques that reinforce the relationship between a student’s university experience and professional challenges and satisfactions.

The University is committed to diversity in both its educational and work environments by providing equal educational opportunity and a commitment to hiring and retaining a diverse and exceptional faculty and staff.

Meet the Provost

Jonathan H. Hill, DPS

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Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dr. Jonathan Hill, DPS, is Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs at Pace University, working across campuses in New York City, Pleasantville, and White Plains. He has 30 years of progressively responsible experience empowering individuals to form teams that deliver results in excess of what they thought possible. Across academia and industry, he has been a driving force in the most exciting and challenging areas in business and education.

In his twenty-one years at Pace, Jonathan has served as Program Chair (Computing Information Systems), Director of Special Programs and Projects, Assistant Dean, Associate Dean, and most recently, Dean of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. He is a founder and former director of the Pace STEM Collaboratory as well as Seidenberg Creative Labs.

As Dean of Seidenberg, Jonathan led a revitalization of the school with an emphasis on innovative teaching, hands-on learning with the latest technologies, international collaboration, the development of research lab facilities, and new programs in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Human Centered Design, Cybersecurity, Game Design, and Design Thinking. His time at Seidenberg was marked by flourishing faculty research (including accepted faculty grant applications totaling more than $10 million) and an emphasis on excellent teaching, with noted reputational growth in undergraduate and graduate programs.

Under Jonathan’s leadership, as an organization, Seidenberg was noted for its high performance, high morale culture, and a commitment to student-centeredness that led to significant increases in enrollment and retention. Jonathan also expanded both international recruiting and international partnerships, including Pace’s membership in the Design Factory Global Network as part of more than 50 top engineering and design schools around the globe. He strengthened alumni and donor relationships, event-driven fundraising, and corporate and private engagement.

Jonathan planned and developed the Seidenberg Scholars program for gifted and talented first-year students, and cultivated government and corporate programs with organizations including Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Bank of New York Mellon, Hewlett Packard, NYC Department of Education, and New York City Economic Development Corporation. He also extended significant research partnerships, most notably with the Association of Certified and Chartered Accountants (ACCA), Verizon Foundation, and AT&T.

Jonathan’s $7.4 million grant (including a $2 million extension) from the New York-based nonprofit Billion Oyster Project was the largest in Pace history. He also personally secured a $500,000 New York State grant used to reimagine and retrofit student labs and collaborative spaces across Pace’s campuses. His efforts in reengaging the Seidenberg School’s namesake led to a 300% increase in charitable giving for the school in 2018 and an increased annual budget.

Throughout his time at Pace, Jonathan has taught across Seidenberg’s undergraduate and graduate curricula, including serving as Program Chair for CIS101 and teaching courses in database management, Mobile Computing Design and Development, and User Experience. He also was part of the team that launched CUNY’s first online course initiative, and created an entrepreneurship track for Queens College’s Honors Program. Jonathan’s work in the classroom resulted in his being recognized as “a most influential professor” in a Development Office survey of Pace alumni.

Now as Interim Provost, Jonathan’s priorities include:

• Creating a clear road map for the academic community so there is a common understanding of our goals and aspirations
• Collaborating with faculty to build a truly supportive and enriching working environment
• Providing a model for gender and racial diversity by upholding the most diverse student population at Pace, being taught by the most diverse faculty, and providing support and opportunities to underrepresented communities
• Ensuring that Pace’s academic reputation matches the accomplishments of its faculty and staff
• Creating opportunity for people who want to work for it
• Fostering community that sustains high performance
• Continuing the efficient use of resources to maintain a high functioning academic unit
• Expanding Pace’s noted culture of community, inclusion, and personal development, including dedication to our mission among faculty and staff
• Sustaining an engaged and enthusiastic student body at the undergraduate and graduate levels with a strong retention rate and excellent outcomes for our students
• Improving fundraising and engagement of alumni and industry
• Empowering the next generation of faculty and staff leadership to take the reigns

Previously, Jonathan held management positions with major customer-facing technology companies as well as a faculty posting at the City University of New York (CUNY).

In addition to a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of the Pacific, Jonathan holds a Master’s of Business Administration in Management from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College – CUNY, and a Doctor of Professional Studies (DPS) in Computing from Pace University.