Dr. Jahnae Barnett is retiring after serving 30 years as President of William Woods University.
Dr. Barnett is the longest serving female college president and the second longest serving college president in the state of Missouri.
Dr. Barnett’s down-to-earth method of leading while maintaining close relationships with her students, which she refers to as her kids, at the university will leave a legacy at William Woods.
“I got a standard poodle and every morning, I’d you know, I wouldn’t wear my dress clothes I’d wear my casual clothes. The kids would come up to me and “oh Dr. Barnett let me see your dog da da da da da” and so that’s really how I got to, to know a lot of the students,” Barnett said.
In addition to meeting students on campus, Dr. Barnett also took classes with them.
“I knew that one of our major was equestrian, so I walked over to the stables and I said to one of the professors who I’d known for a long time and I said “I need to understand this major” and she looked at me and she said, “then you’re going to get on the horse”. So I did I took classes with the students and then in 1993 I actually became the first and only college president to open the American Royal in Kansas City,” Barnett said.
While remaining close with her students, Barnett has implemented many changes. The college converted to a university in 1993 and moved from single sex to co-ed in 1996.
“I can remember the sitting with the board in the middle of the summer, talking with them that it was time, that we became co-ed. That was a major, major shift, but I, I knew I felt and I think most people did too that it was simply necessary for the growth of the university and the growth of our students,” Barnett said.
John Fougere, Vice President of Strategic Communications at William Woods has seen Dr. Barnett’s changes in action since he took over the job in 2017.
“Dr. Barnett had the foresight back in the 90s to realize, a small private college ultimately was probably not going to survive so we added online degree programs, graduate degree programs, we also again made the very difficult but necessary decision to go co-ed. She still operates that way, very innovative vision for this university so we had a lot of um initiatives that have happened just since I’ve been here that kind of fall along those lines, like for example we uh added uh some new degree programs that are very unique that you can’t find at most other colleges, one of those is called the show me gold program, we also added a new program in cyber security around that time,” Fougere said.
Dr. Barnett will continue to lead William Woods until a replacement can be found
“I believe the time has come for me to pass the gavel. I said “I refuse to use the word retire” and put William Woods in fresh hands,” Barnett said.
A presidential search committee has been formed to find a replacement for Dr. Barnett. The committee is made up of 10 board of trustee members, cabinet members, professors, and current William Woods students. The committee hopes to find a new president by the end of the year.