ROI Influencers: Higher Education 2024
Andrés Acebo
Interim president
New Jersey City University
Here’s a key thing to know about Andrés Acebo, the interim president at New Jersey City University: While so many people would point to his leadership as the reason the school not only has survived its fiscal emergency, but already appears to be in a better place — and with a brighter future — Acebo would be quick to credit so many others for the school’s turnaround.
It starts with faculty and their unions, which were quick to work together to solve the problems, even if it meant cutting jobs and courses — and support of numerous Hudson County unions.
It includes the student body, which maintained its enthusiasm for the anchor institution.
It extends to the school’s administrative leaders — including interim Provost Donna Breault and Chief Financial Officer Brian Kirkpatrick (both of whom are honored on this list) — who have worked to create the school’s Recovery and Revitalization Plan (April 2023), its first Strategic Enrollment Plan (April 2023) and its first Academic Master Plan (February 2024) — as well as a brand refresh that produced the school’s first mission statement.
And, of course, it includes local and state elected officials, both in Hudson County and certainly in Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, who have been instrumental in guiding the school to where it sits today: One that has a balanced budget less than two years after declaring a financial emergency and upgraded outlook by Moody’s from “negative” to “stable.”
Acebo is the person that has brought all this together, provided optimism at a time when there was little, offered hope when it was in short supply.
Still under 40, he is the youngest university president in the state — and only the second Hispanic to lead a four-year public university. He adds another distinction today: the No. 1 spot in the ROI Influencers: Higher Education list for 2024.
Previous No. 1s
A look at those who previously were honored with the top spot in the ROI Influencers: Higher Education list:
2023: Chris Eisgruber, Princeton University
2022: Ali Houshmand, Rowan University
2021: Joel Bloom, New Jersey Institute of Technology
2020: Zakiya Smith Ellis, N.J. secretary of higher education
