Donald R. Boomgaarden Ph.D.

President

St. Joseph’s College

Donald R. Boomgaarden, Ph.D., is the eighth president of St. Joseph’s College, New York.
During his time at SJC, Dr. Boomgaarden has overseen a successful reaccreditation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, launched a new strategic plan, grown the College’s endowment by nearly 50 percent and seen record high enrollments on all three campuses — SJC Brooklyn, SJC Long Island and SJC Online.
Under his leadership, the College is currently adding new academic programs, making improvements to its physical campuses and planning to build a new multi-million dollar student center on its Patchogue campus. He also makes frequent media appearances as an industry leader in higher education.
Dr. Boomgaarden serves on the board of trustees for the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU), is Board Chair of the Association of Colleges of Sisters of St. Joseph (ACSSJ), a steering committee member of the Long Island Regional Advisory Council on Higher Education (LIRACHE), where he is also chair to the Superintendents and College President’s Partnership, and is chair of the Lower Hudson Valley Consortium of Catholic Colleges and Universities. He’s been named one of the most influential Brooklynites by “Brooklyn Power 100” for two consecutive years.
Dr. Boomgaarden is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and also studied at the University of Vienna, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Boomgaarden also graduated from Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. Dr. Boomgaarden is a noted historian of opera, music aesthetics and harmonic theory.