More university governing boards are hiring presidents whose career achievements occurred outside of academia as the task of running universities becomes increasingly multifaceted, experts say.

Jackie Jenkins-Scott was intrigued by the idea of becoming a college president. Nevermind that she hadn’t held a fulltime university job before, and her entire administrative career had been spent in health care and social work. In her view, she’d already succeeded at improving the lives of young people. Why not try doing it through academia?

The longer she considered this while soul-searching in late 2003, the more sense it made.

Wheelock College trustees agreed. They hired her in July 2004 to lead the small, Boston private school specializing in teacher education, social work and child life programs.

“I was fortunate the timing worked out well, because I was prepared to interview for presidencies for much longer,” Jenkins-Scott says.

She is among a growing number of college presidents who aren’t professional scholars. Some have excelled in nonacademic spheres of higher education, such as law or finance. Others, like Jenkins-Scott, entered their presidencies as outsiders.

As the task of running universities becomes increasingly multifaceted, more governing boards are hiring presidents whose career achievements occurred outside of classrooms, labs and think tanks, experts say. Today’s presidents must manage multimillion dollar operations while juggling duties as varied as fundraising, legislative relations and community outreach.

In 2006, for instance, 17 percent of presidents polled said they came to their positions from outside higher education, according to a study by the American Council on Education and the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Another 23 percent previously worked as nonacademic officers in higher education.

“There’s definitely growing interest in the hiring of nontraditional presidents,” says Dr. Judith McLaughlin, a senior lecturer at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. “Universities hiring nontraditional presidents are looking for someone who will take the institution beyond its immediate context.”