L. Jay Lemons
President and Senior Consultant
Dr. L. Jay Lemons became president of Academic Search in 2017, after serving for 25 years as a college president in both public and private higher education. A recognized leader in the academy, Dr. Lemons has been particularly devoted to working with new college presidents through service on the faculty of the new presidents programs of AASCU and CIC and through the professional development programs for aspiring leaders of the American Academic Leadership Institute. This passion for working with new and emerging leaders and the opportunity to help them build teams and their institutions was what led him to accept the presidency of Academic Search.
Since joining Academic Search, Dr. Lemons has led a broad range of searches at private and public colleges and universities, system offices, accrediting bodies, and associations and organizations related to the academy. He is noted for bringing unique insight and a keen understanding of organizational dynamics to the search process, gained through the numerous recruitment and search processes he conducted throughout his career as a campus leader. Dr. Lemons has quickly emerged as a respected and influential search professional and was elected in 2019 as the co-chair of the American Council on Education’s Executive Search Roundtable.
He has also served on committees or boards of the American Council on Education, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges. He brings these broad contacts and his deep knowledge of public and private higher education to executive search.
