Early in her career, Jill Buban was a high school teacher in rural New York when she noticed many of her students’ untapped potential.
Although they were smart and capable, these young adults didn’t have access to college-level courses and many didn’t see a clear path to college. So Buban decided to show them the possibilities.
She brought a program from Syracuse University to her rural school so students could earn college credits while in high school.
“I was really passionate and dedicated to showing these first-generation students a different path, and seeing them gain confidence in their learning was so powerful,” she said. “It sparked my interest in increasing access to education.”
She still keeps in touch with many of these now-successful professionals.
But the experience was also transformative for Buban. She realized that online and blended learning provided students with the opportunity to learn regardless of their geographic location. Shortly after, she started working at SUNY Empire State College—where Buban taught and developed online offerings and oversaw online enrollment management. She went on to work at three additional institutions and led research and innovation for the Online Learning Consortium. She later developed education programs for the private sector, helping to drive educational advancement for employees at many Fortune 500 companies.
Buban is now joining the University as its first associate provost of online learning. University leaders are thrilled to have her.
“Not only has Dr. Buban served as a faculty member, department chair, and dean in online learning institutions, she held a leadership role at a publicly traded company that focused on educational access for over 6 million employees,” said Kathi Kern, the University’s senior vice provost of education. “It is rare to find in one individual such a breadth of experience and that explains why Dr. Buban is routinely sought out as a speaker and consultant in higher education circles.”
Buban grew up in Connecticut, where she was fortunate to have several formative teachers that inspired her to continue learning throughout her life. She was also an athlete and played varsity volleyball, basketball, and softball in high school, and for a short time in college. She attributes her approach to teamwork, leadership, teaching, perseverance, and grit to her athletic experiences.
“My students, teachers, and coaches showed me the opportunity I have to impact peoples’ lives, so that is always on my mind—no matter the scale of the initiative,” she said. “The student is at the heart of all I do, and I always want to provide a best-in-class experience that will help them meet their educational, professional, and personal goals.”
At SUNY Empire State College, Buban found a strong mentor in Meg Benke, who recognized her ability to navigate both teaching and the business side of online education. After observing Buban’s ability to expand the online student population, Benke urged Buban to get a Ph.D. Soon, Buban was asked to join Benke in the provost’s office at SUNY Empire State.
She went on to work at Post University, where Buban was named assistant provost of innovation and research after being a program chair, faculty member, and dean. At Post, she worked to bring innovative solutions that decreased costs while increasing access to education. A few years later, Buban was recruited to be the first director of research and innovation at the Online Learning Consortium, where she was also selected as a fellow by the Board of Trustees.
“We exposed rigorous academic research that helped negate the idea that there are differences in quality between in-person and virtual learning modalities. Additionally, we reinvigorated the Online Learning Journal, a now internationally respected, peer-reviewed journal,” she said.
During that time, Buban met Doug Lederman, who co-founded the publication Inside Higher Ed, and wrote about how colleges and universities were adopting online education. Since then, Buban has worked at two other colleges and private companies, so Lederman often used her as a source because her view is more wide-ranging than others in the academic technology field, he said.
“From my viewpoint, every educational institution should be thinking about what role can technology play to serve our current and future students more fully,” Lederman said. “And if that’s the question, Jill is really well positioned to help them come up with answers to those questions.”
Buban shifted gears in her role as chief academic officer at Unizin Consortium. This nonprofit helps to foster solutions to challenges for postsecondary education learners, and uses learning data to improve student achievement for more than one million students at 14 partner institutions, like the University of Florida, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Texas. Reporting to the chief information officers at some of these institutions gave Buban the chance to expand her knowledge of information technology and education technology. During this time, she negotiated some of the largest technology contracts in the nation for the consortium.
In 2020 Buban became the inaugural vice president of digital strategy and online education at Fairfield University and started a new unit for online learning, while also navigating the transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. While that immediate transition to remote challenged her team to define remote learning’s differences to online learning, she said “it was also an exciting time. We built a team expeditiously and launched 21 certificate and graduate degree programs in 14 months.”
Soon, Buban got the opportunity to work at EdAssist by Bright Horizons, a publicly traded company that consults and builds educational opportunities for employees at more than 250 of the nation’s largest corporations. Through EdAssist, Buban led a team that created educational and career pathways for employees to earn degrees or professional certificates at institutions of higher education. During her time at the company, Buban was grateful for the ability to scale these opportunities to reach more than 500,000 learners each year.
Buban then brought her skills to EdPlus at Arizona State University, its learning innovation unit that houses ASU Online. During her time there, Buban forged partnerships with corporations while looking for ways to create impact and growth through marketing, student support, educational product innovations, and noncredit, or microcredential offerings.
She is now eager to build upon the University’s techniques to inspire and engage online learners.
“I have built incredible knowledge of education ecosystems that incorporate lifelong learning, so I am excited to bring this knowledge to the University of Miami, to learn from the people here, and to bring the University’s unique qualities and assets to learners around the world,” Buban said.
