Dr. Jeff Hennessy (’99, top row, second from the right) with Acadia students during Move-In Day 2023.
By Fred Sgambati (’83)
Dr. Jeff Hennessy (’99) has been a member of the Acadia community for nearly 30 years, as a student, alum, faculty member, administrator, and now as University President. That’s a lot of personal history, but if you were to ask him to describe his proudest moment, the answer is unequivocal: right here, right now. Hennessy started a six-year term as Acadia’s 17th President and Vice-Chancellor on September 1, 2023. Since then, he has been working hard to meet students, build an executive team, engage with faculty, learn as much as he can, and connect with alumni here at home and around the world.
“Being given this opportunity and coming out with the confidence of the University, Board, the faculty, staff and alumni has been incredibly humbling,” Hennessy says. “On the one hand, it’s mind-blowing, but on the other, it seems like the perfect point in time.”
Hennessy returned to his alma mater from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where he was Interim President and Vice-Chancellor. Previously, since 2020, he served as Mount Allison’s Provost and Vice-President Academic and Research. He chaired the Maple League of Universities, an academic consortium of Acadia, Bishop’s, Mount Allison, and St. Francis Xavier universities, dedicated to building critical thinkers and leaders by delivering an extraordinary 21st-century liberal education. He also served as Chair of the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from University of Toronto, a Master of Arts from the University of British Columbia, a Bachelor of Music from Acadia, and a Bachelor of Science from Trent University in Peterborough, where he grew up, moving with his family to Shearwater, Nova Scotia when he was 12 years old and Cornwallis, Nova Scotia when he was 14. He arrived in Wolfville in 1994. His experiences at Trent as an undergrad offered insight into the type of university experience he wanted: a smaller school, with high-quality, personalized educational opportunities.
However, Hennessy is also a musician, and he considered the possibility of playing professionally. With that in mind, he went to Mount Allison for a year to study music, but his fiancée (and now wife) Erin (’94, ’96) was doing an English degree and about to head into the Education program at Acadia. Erin is now the principal dentist/owner of a successful family practice in Wolfville. “I was doing the commute from Mt. A to Wolfville on weekends,” he says, “like I’ve been doing for the past three years. That got to be too much, so I started looking into the music program at Acadia.” The approach to education and the close-knit faculty feeling at Acadia really confirmed that Acadia was the best fit. He finished the music degree and even though he went elsewhere to obtain graduate degrees, he was always drawn back to Acadia. When a position as Director of Music opened up, he applied and got the job. The rest, of course, is history. Since then, Hennessy has built an extensive resume of personal and professional achievement at progressively higher levels of responsibility in the post-secondary sector, culminating in being named Acadia’s President in July.
“Coming back as President is the dream,” Hennessy says. “Acadia turned me into a higher education leader; that’s where my skill set is and where I think I can give the most.”
The dream
“Coming back as President is the dream,” Hennessy says. “Acadia turned me into a higher education leader; that’s where my skill set is and where I think I can give the most.” To say that it has been a whirlwind since the announcement would be an understatement, but Hennessy has embraced the excitement, noting that the positive vibes and goodwill he has received have been wonderful. He knows it’s a big job, but his collective experiences at Acadia and the three years as Provost at Mt. A have given him insight into how a university runs. “I have a pretty good understanding of Acadia, but there is a lot to learn, too. The really big part these first few months is soaking up how certain things work that I haven’t been exposed to and identifying key health indicators for the University. “It’s an open-ended agenda, and also part of a conversation. What does the community think? We are coming out of a pandemic, a previous labour disruption, and a new transition of leadership. I’m looking to foster a sense of community: building a feeling that we’re all in it together, repairing some trust that has been sacrificed, and setting a tone that starts with our senior leadership and spreads out to other parts of the University.” Trust and harmony are two key themes in Hennessy’s approach, predicated on the assumption that everyone working at Acadia is dedicated to enabling students to have life fulfillment and a feeling of empowerment.
“From my perspective, if you start with an assumption that our professors want to do great things and staff members are committed to students and these students are committed to learning, it opens up a lot of different things.” Part of the equation is a sense of harmony, a term to which Hennessy can relate given his extensive background in music. Interestingly, he says that harmony doesn’t mean everybody doing the same thing. In fact, in music, harmony has many different undertones and it’s more the interplay of various parts that make something interesting and valuable. “It’s how we inform the work,” he adds. “If you’re playing in an ensemble, throwing in a new element that’s not quite in the plan can actually lead to something really magical. Doing the same thing over and over again has never really been my jam. “As an improvisational musician, there are two things I always fall back on: collaboration and creativity.” Hennessy appreciates the value of a context within which “you’re kind of making stuff up as you go. That has been a very valuable skill in this kind of work,” and the ability to adapt quickly and purposefully can make a huge difference. “Programs change, students change, situations change,” he says. “As a group, how do we react? What are our strengths, and how do we make the best decisions in that moment? Leading in that environment is very exciting.”
Important ally
It certainly helps that Hennessy is an alum, and very familiar with Acadia’s proud history, traditions and myriad personal and educational opportunities. He sees Acadia’s alumni community as a critically important ally in communicating the value of the kind of post-secondary experience that has made Acadia a premier destination for students for generations. “If you’re an alum, essentially what you’re most interested in is a way to make sure that students coming in have the same quality experience you did when you were here. Word of mouth is a big piece of how we recruit. We have ways to market traditionally, of course, but when you have a successful alum out there, enjoying a career that can be traced back to their time at Acadia and they communicate that, it’s gold. Students can actually see themselves in that future.”
The bottom line is, alumni can help tell the Acadia story. “Alumni have lived the ‘after’,” Hennessy says. “They demonstrate what Acadia gave them to go on and use in their lives, and that’s a powerful message only that group can share. For me, it’s a major resource. Alumni are the best recruiters and storytellers we have.” In assessing the many challenges and opportunities ahead, Hennessy says, “very little of it is about me. It’s more my ability to specifically do something to empower others. In every situation I’ve come into, there has always been a core strength that has been undeniably awesome. The question becomes, what can I do to remove obstacles and create pathways? “I’ve always been able to figure out the talent in the room and how I can help people work together to unlock that potential and move the gap. The big thing is, when you can, empower a group of great people to do great things. If you enable that, great things always happen.
“I’m proud to be leading this institution, and exciting things are on the horizon,” he says. “I like where we are now and look forward to where we’re going.”