12 People You Need to Know: Jeff Frederick

Q&A | March 18

Why You Need to Know Jeff: The new president of Drury University is making connections – on campus and off – as he seeks to boost accessibility and academic offerings at the private, liberal arts school.
Position: President, Drury University
Age: 61
Education: Doctorate in history, Auburn University; master’s in history and bachelor’s in marketing, University of Central Florida
Career: Provost and executive vice president, Wingate University; professor, chair and dean, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke

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As Drury University’s president – the 19th in the 151-year history of the private, liberal arts higher education school – Jeff Frederick can be seen as a community connector.

It’s partly that component of Frederick’s role, for which he succeeded interim President John Beuerlein in June 2024, that has him excited for the university’s future. Frederick has helped Drury build recent connections for new degree programs from the business and nonprofit sectors, even as it announced a grant program last year designed to lower student costs.

The new initiative, dubbed Drury Springfield Promise, is set to debut in the fall with the goal of reducing expenses for local students and those who show a significant financial need. While declining to disclose current totals, he says Drury’s enrollment is “trending in a really strong direction” in terms of commitments from Springfield-area students. The total day school student enrollment rose to 1,391 in fall 2024, a roughly 2.7% increase from a year prior.

“That makes us feel really good that this investment in the community has been welcomed,” he says of the Drury Springfield Promise.

Frederick says his early experience at Drury, which employs around 340 people, is familiar to him from his previous four years at Wingate University, near Charlotte, North Carolina, where he served as provost and executive vice president.

“You come to Drury because you want to be a name and not a number,” he says. “It’s been really good to be integrated into the community and get to know our students and all of what they’re accomplishing already.”

Under Frederick’s leadership, Drury also is connecting with longtime executives in the health care industry, as Jay Guffey, retired chief operating officer of Mercy Springfield Communities, and Steve Edwards, retired president and CEO of CoxHealth, are partnering to launch a master’s in health care administration program in the fall. That follows the school’s announcement to restart its Master of Business Administration program after a one-year pause and last summer’s hiring of former Community Foundation of the Ozarks Inc. President Brian Fogle as executive in residence.

“Higher ed is in a world where we partner. The expression is ‘partner or perish.’ Our students need those connections,” Frederick says. “All institutions are looking to provide the most amount of expertise that they can to develop the best skills that they can in their students. And Drury’s no different.”

Frederick says the community engagement and academic program additions come amid Drury nearing the $50 million goal for its Fortify the Future capital campaign ahead of its May 2027 schedule.

“We’ll either be close to finishing it this year, or we’ll finish it off next year,” he says.