Jeanne H. Neff, President

Dr. Jeanne H. Neff became the eighth President of The Sage Colleges on July 1, 1995. President Neff came to Sage from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, where she served as Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty from 1986 to 1995.

A former American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow in Academic Administration and a graduate of the Harvard University Institute for Educational Management, Dr. Neff has long been active in national higher education associations, serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and most recently as a member and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). She helped to found the Associated New American Colleges (ANAC), a national consortium of independent comprehensive universities, of which Sage is a member, and served as the first chair of its Presidents Council.

President Neff has developed an ambitious strategic plan for The Sage Colleges—the Agenda for Excellence—which has sought to raise the level of academic programs across the Colleges; to make a stronger connection between academic and extra-curricular elements of student life, including athletics; to encourage the creation of new, interdisciplinary academic programs; and to achieve organizational efficiencies that help to control costs. Since 1995, more than $40 million has been invested in improvements to campus buildings and infrastructure, including the expansion of technology resources and the addition of the Opalka Gallery in Albany, the Buchman Pavilion in Troy, a nanoscience business incubator and a new Center for Recreation and Field Sports.

Throughout her presidency, Dr. Neff has emphasized collaborative community partnerships. Because of her work to improve the neighborhood around the Troy campus through a successful owner-occupant housing incentive program, in 2003 she received the Van Rensselaer Award for Outstanding Corporate Citizenship from the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce. Under her leadership, Sage has received numerous accolades for its positive town-gown involvement. Sage and President Neff were selected as Gala Honorees for 2005 at The Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway in recognition of the tasteful restoration of the historic Russell Sage College campus in downtown Troy. She also received an Excellence in Preservation Award for 2005 from the Preservation League of New York State.

In 2000 President Neff helped launch the Summit in Tech Valley, which annually draws the world’s attention to the Capital Region. She is a member and past chair of the Board of Directors of the University Heights Association, linking Sage with the Albany Law School, Albany College of Pharmacy, and Albany Medical Center via a common campus contiguous to all four. Dr. Neff is also co-chair of Historic Troy 2020, a multi-constituent planning group working on the city’s economic development. She is presently on the board of directors of Albany Medical Center and the Troy Redevelopment Foundation.

Jeanne Neff is co-host of the popular 51%, a prize-winning news program about women, produced at WAMC-FM, Northeast Public Radio, and carried nationally by more than two hundred stations. The program can be heard via podcast on wamc.org.

President Neff is a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia and received her M.A. in English from Rice University and the Doctor of Arts from Carnegie-Mellon University, where she held one of the first Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women's Studies. After teaching at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, Dr. Neff returned to WJU in 1970 as a faculty member and scholar in the emerging field of women’s literature. She stayed at Wheeling to become a dean and later Academic Vice President, the first woman to hold that position in a Jesuit institution. And in 1986 she moved to Susquehanna University as its first female Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Neff lives in Troy with her husband Edward Neff, a risk management consultant.