Jennifer Schroeder Elevates Graduate Education as New Dean of The Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies

When Jennifer Schroeder, Ph.D., joined Georgia Southern University as dean of the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies (COGS) in July, she arrived with a demonstrated ability to unite faculty, staff and institutional partners to create new opportunities for students.

“Graduate programs at Georgia Southern are strong, and I am looking forward to working with program coordinators, faculty and across administrative divisions to move graduate education here to the next level,” Schroeder said. “We have an opportunity to demonstrate to our graduate students, the region, and even the nation, what a graduate degree from Georgia Southern creates in terms of career opportunities for the individual, but also the positive change for our communities.”

Schroeder’s career has taken her through various roles in higher education, where she began as an assistant professor at East Texas A&M University and then rebuilt the school’s psychology program. She discovered a passion for program development and working with graduate students, eventually moving into administration as a department head, associate dean and dean of the Graduate School.

As dean, Schroeder supported more than 3,000 graduate students across a wide range of programs. She helped launch a master’s degree in artificial intelligence and worked across campus to enhance admissions processes, student support services and program development.

“It’s always been important to me that university conversations include consideration of all of our students, which includes our graduate students,” Schroeder said. “I believe COGS can help our graduate students by removing unnecessary barriers that get in the way of students completing their graduate degrees.”

Those barriers, she said, can be as simple as students not knowing where to turn when they encounter a problem. COGS can help streamline their experience by providing information up front while advocating for graduate students who often balance academics with other responsibilities.

Schroeder’s multifaceted experiences position her to lead Georgia Southern’s expanding graduate education as the University reaches record enrollment for the Fall 2026 Semester. 

“What Georgia Southern needed from a new graduate dean, where Georgia Southern is headed and a similar mission to my previous institution all made the opportunity here feel right,” she said. “I did similar work at my previous institution, specifically with supporting doctoral programs, and moving to Georgia Southern provided the opportunity to do it on a larger scale.”

Looking ahead, Schroeder envisions graduate students playing an even greater role in conversations across the University.

“In five years, graduate students will be considered in all University conversations, just as undergraduate students are,” Schroeder said. “Because the undergraduate population is so large compared to the graduate population, and because the majority of students on campus are undergraduates, it is natural for them to be at the forefront of conversations. I’ve found that so much of what we do also applies to at least a portion of the graduate population, if not all of them, and that we should always consider them when discussing new initiatives.”

– Melanie Simón