Jessica McCarthy

Jessica is the director of graduate student support and part of the Graduate & Postdoctoral Success (GPS) team. In this role, she focuses on career and academic support of master’s and professional students across 17 schools and colleges and two campuses. This includes collaborating with school and college representatives, University-wide offices, as well as developing and maintaining a strategic communications effort for various stakeholder groups.

Prior to BU, Jessica was the assistant dean of graduate programs in the School of Education & Social Policy at Merrimack College, as well as the interim program director for the online education graduate program. During her time at Merrimack, she supported the development and operations of six graduate programs, as well as the implementation of the college’s first online program in teacher education. These efforts required extensive coordination of processes among faculty and staff, graduate admission and enrollment, marketing, budgeting, registrar, student accounts, academic units, as well as third-party entities. Jessica takes pride in her ability to develop cross-campus partnerships for the benefit of supporting graduate students. Previously, she was the marketing coordinator for the University of Connecticut Alumni Association, and held various marketing communication and project management roles before pivoting into a career in higher education.

Through her doctoral studies, Jessica examined connection, communication, and belonging of master’s students in a multi-modality graduate program. With over 15 years of working with graduate students, Jessica is committed to continuous improvement of programs, services, and resources that support graduate students no matter where they are on their professional, personal, or academic journey.