For Dr. Jeremy Martin, the path to higher education wasn’t a straight line. In fact, it
started with 297 handwritten letters and a passion for coaching.
Martin, newly appointed 18th President of Florida Southern College, began his career in higher education in an unexpected place — on the basketball court. Martin recalled that there were pivotal moments that shaped his career, from working as an assistant basketball coach at Emory University to pursuing a Ph.D. in educational policy.
Towards the end of Martin’s junior year at Houghton College where he played collegiate basketball, he saw himself coaching collegiate athletics. In the fall of his junior year, Martin reached out to 297 coaches and colleges across the country and accepted 9 opportunities to work at camps for the next summer. Upon graduating, he landed a position as the assistant coach for
the women’s basketball team at Emory University.
“At that point, I was entirely focused on coaching. I enjoyed coaching women’s
basketball,” said Martin. He would also complete his MBA during this time and shortly after, became the assistant coach for men’s basketball at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.
“While I was there, to make a part-time assistant coaching role livable I took a position as an academic administrator,” said Martin. Martin explained that his official title at Gordon College was an Academic Dissemination Coordinator, in which he assisted professors in sharing their research with broader, popular audiences while also overseeing grant management and
related administrative responsibilities.
After five years of both coaching and working as an administrator at Gordon College, Martin realized that his interests had shifted more toward the academic side of higher education than athletics. This realization led him to pursue a Ph.D. in educational policy at William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia. While there, he balanced multiple graduate assistantships and began shifting his focus to academic leadership. The provost at William & Mary, nearing retirement, brought Martin on as an intern to create a transition notebook for their successor. This
valuable experience paved the way for Martin to begin working as assistant to the president and provost, in 2008, later advancing into roles such as associate provost, chief of staff, and interim director of athletics during his tenure at William & Mary, before his appointment as 18th President of Florida Southern College.
During Martin’s nearly 20 years in higher education, he has discovered one especially challenging aspect. “One of the hard things to realize is that, as you move up the chain, you get further from the initial thing that drew you into the profession, which was likely interaction with students,”.
To combat this challenge, Martin makes every effort to stay connected with students. So far during his time at FSC, he has prided himself in saying yes to any student organization that has invited him to be involved in an event. He also makes an effort to connect with students by spending time in Wynee’s Bistro once a week. “Any group that’s bold enough to ask, I’m trying to show up, and I may not be able to show up tomorrow, but I’m likely to show up in the next
month,” said Martin.
The busy lifestyle of being a college president doesn’t leave a lot of time for work-life balance. “I don’t fully buy into the phrase work-life balance. It’s a whole lot more work-life integration for me,” Martin said. He has mastered the art of work-life integration by including his family in areas of his work. In his first month as president, Martin invited every member of the senior administrative team, and their families, over for dinner at his home. He touched on the importance of his wife getting to meet with and know the people he’s working with daily. Martin
also makes an effort to include his kids when possible, such as when he recently took his son to a fraternity chapter event in the hopes his son could see these young men as role models and strive to be like them. “I was like, hey, here’s a chance for my son and I to engage with this group,” Martin said. “He had a blast”.
Martin’s advice for those aspiring to enter higher education is rooted in persistence and continual growth. He emphasizes the importance of “falling in love with the grind,” showing up each day with effort and celebrating the achievements of others. To stand out, Martin advises becoming excellent in one area while developing a broad range of skills. “Be really good at something while you’re developing skills in all things,” he notes. He also encourages thinking in
five-year horizons, always preparing for the next step and adding skills that will support future success.