When Lisa Marsh Ryerson dialed into her interview with University Business from Central New York, she was already looking ahead to her next gathering in Atlanta, just three weeks away. As president of Southern New Hampshire University, Ryerson takes pride in navigating both virtual and in-person spaces to foster deeper connections with students, faculty, and alumni.
“We’re truly nationwide, which is something different than being national,” she says. “Nationwide means that we are deeply local in many places and with our students.”
Ryerson succeed Paul LeBlanc as president of Southern New Hampshire in 2024 following a transformative 20-year tenure. LeBlanc, a TIAA Institute Theodore M. Hesburgh Award winner, is credited with lifting the institution from a small regional college into an online juggernaut that currently enrolls more than 180,000 students.
As a former provost and member of the Board of Trustees, Ryerson played a key role in Southern New Hampshire’s innovation over the past eight years. In her first year as president, she has launched a skills-based microcredential platform, expanded opportunities for credit for prior learning, and is actively shaping policy recommendations to boost postsecondary funding for students.
“Just as much as we celebrate our successes, it’s about not resting on one’s laurels,” she says. “It’s really important every day to wake up and know where our blind spots are.”
Now, after earning a five-year contract extension, Ryerson is promising to further the mission that has made Southern New Hampshire University successful in the first place: a relentless focus on students—and the staff that support them.
Why student focus is a discipline
College leaders can be overwhelmed by the various headwinds that may impact its operations, Ryerson says. The president believes Southern New Hampshire has persevered for the last two decades due to its relentless interest in understanding its learners.
“If you’re always thinking about the learner and are working in a disciplined fashion, it becomes a mindset and a discipline to not design for them, but to design with them,” she explains.
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For example, improving learner outcomes must begin with investigating each student’s aspirations, which the university must then use to develop methods that can help learners achieve their goals and transform their lives.
“We’ve had this debate for years about learners being customers, but, you know, come on. They are investing their time and other precious assets because they have a goal they’re striving to achieve. Our learners deserve our attention at all times and individually, even at scale,” Ryerson says.
Maximizing staff feedback
With employees located across the country, Ryerson doesn’t allow physical distance to impede a culture of collaboration in the workplace.
“SNHU decided to have remote work before the pandemic, and I am not asking my employees to return to a place,” say says. “What I ask of them every day is to be really clear about the way in which their work aligns with our plan and our mission, and to be sure that we give our people the tools they need to do their work in an excellent way.”
Ryerson encourages employees to speak about the institutions through a number of initiatives. She launched “Ask Lisa,” an anonymous messaging portal for candid feedback, organized city-wide social meetups to build community, and championed regular qualitative and quantitative updates to keep employees informed and engaged.
