COUNCIL TRUSTEES
Mr. Jack M. Wilson, Ph.D.
President of the University of Massachusetts
Formerly the founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UMassOnline, Dr. Wilson worked with the five UMass campuses – Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell and Worcester – to provide online access to academic programs. Dr. Wilson is a tenured Professor of Management at UMass Amherst and has served the University system as VP for Academic Affairs.
A well-known entrepreneur and distance educator, Dr. Wilson was a co-founder, President, and Chairman of LearnLinc Corporation (now Mentergy), a supplier of software systems for corporate training to Fortune 1000 Corporations.
Prior to UMass, Dr. Wilson was at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he was the J. Erik Jonsson '22 Distinguished Professor of Physics, Engineering Science, Information Technology, and Management and the Co-director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship. During his 11 years at Rensselaer, Dr. Wilson served at various times as Dean of Undergraduate and Professional Education, Dean of Faculty and Provost. In these roles, Dr. Wilson led a campus-wide process of interactive learning and restructuring of the educational program. He was known for the design of the Studio Classrooms, the growth of the Distributed Learning Program, the creation of the Faculty of Information Technology, and the initiation of the student mobile computing (universal networked laptop) initiative.
Prior to Rensselaer, Dr. Wilson was a Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. He served for eight years as the Executive Officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and on the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics (AIP). His 31 year career as a Professor has included terms as Department Chair, four Dean's positions, director of a research center, and acting Provost.
Dr. Wilson has served as a consultant to many computing and communications firms including AT&T, Lucent and Hewlett Packard, and an International Consulting Scholar for the IBM Corporation. He has authored over 55 scholarly articles, written or edited five books, and given over 200 invited lectures. Dr. Wilson has enjoyed over $23 million in funding for his research and scholarly activities.
