Jay Hershenson
Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations
and Secretary of the Board of Trustees
Jay Hershenson is Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York. He has served as Vice Chancellor since 1984 and has worked in senior level administrative positions for six CUNY Chancellors and with over 100 CUNY trustees since the mid-1970's. His portfolio includes the development and implementation of CUNY's external relations programs, including governmental, media and community relations, marketing, communications and CUNY-TV and the administration of the Board of Trustees' agenda, meetings and records.
His local, national and state-wide public service has included: serving as Senior Advisor for Communications to the 2010 NYC Charter Revision Commission; appointment by former President Jimmy Carter to the National Advisory Committee on Education; appointment by former Governor Hugh L. Carey as one of five Commissioners on the Temporary State Commission on the Future of Postsecondary Education and the Task Force on State Aid to Education; appointments by Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and former Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink to the State Consumer Advisory Committee; and as Chair of the New York State Standardized Testing Advisory Board. He served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) Council on University Relations and Development. He currently serves on the New York State Board of Regents/ University of the State of New York Technology Policy and Practices Council and the Ogilvy and Mather Advisory Committee on Diversity. He is also a member of the New York Board of Rabbis Lay Advisory Committee. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Foundation for Investor Education and is Chair of the Marketing and Public Relations Committee.
Senior Vice Chancellor Hershenson previously served as a leader in non-profit organizations: as Executive Director of the Committee for Public Higher Education; New York City Regional Director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, Inc.; and as Unit Director of the United Fund of New York. He is a former Vice Chairperson of the Anti-Defamation League Regional New York Board and current Board member. He served as a member of the United Negro College Fund Scholarship Committee and the Board of Directors of the Council of Churches.
He received an M.A. in Urban Studies and a B.A. in Communications, Arts and Sciences and University Administration from Queens College, CUNY, after transferring from Queensborough Community College, CUNY. He was an adjunct faculty member in the Hunter College and Queens College Departments of Political Science. In 1974, he was elected and re-elected in 1975 to serve as the Chairperson of the University Student Senate of CUNY and became the first elected student trustee on the University's Board of Trustees.
Senior Vice Chancellor Hershenson has pioneered major public service partnerships between CUNY, media organizations, and corporate leaders. Together with former New York Daily News Editor-in-Chief Martin Dunn, he proposed and supervised eight "Citizenship Now!" call-ins over the last seven years, assisting close to 85,000 immigrants. He initiated the "Voting Rights and Citizenship" calendar and curricula project, partnering CUNY with The New York Times, JPMorgan Chase, TIAA-CREF and The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. He is the Senior Project Director for "Women's Leadership," "A Nation of Immigrants," "Let Freedom Ring," "City Life," and "Investing in Futures: Public Higher Education in America" calendars and curricula, again with the Times, corporate and archival partners.
He is the Executive Producer of the Emmy Award winning television show "Nueva York," the CUNY-TV magazine program about Hispanic communities in New York City, and the Emmy Award nominated television series on CUNY-TV, "Study with the Best."
Updated Nov. 12, 2010