DeKALB — President Lisa Freeman’s journey to becoming NIU’s president started with a love of science.
A biology major at Cornell University focusing on veterinary medicine, Freeman excelled with research during an undergraduate lab project, discovering the joy of asking questions no one knew the answer to.
Freeman graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 1981, then a master’s degree and a doctor of veterinary medicine in 1986 from Cornell University. She then earned her doctorate in philosophy at The Ohio State University in 1989.
Before joining NIU, Freeman began teaching a class of 100 students at Kansas State University for 16 years. She also held roles that include associate dean for research and graduate programs for the College of Veterinary Medicine and associate vice president for innovation for K-State Olathe.
“I built a program to give them summer research experience, and I did that by bringing various sources of funding together and collaborating with other universities,” Freeman said.
After being told by a provost at KSU that she excelled in administrative skills, Freeman decided to pursue a career in research administration.
“I always tell my students, ‘Try something new. If you don’t like it, you learn something about yourself,’” Freeman said, “I went from there, not immediately but ultimately, to research administration.”
In 2010, Freeman served as NIU’s executive vice president and provost and vice president for research and graduate studies. In September 2018, Freeman was appointed as the university president.
“Bringing people, money and ideas together and building programs that help people are something that I found I liked, and that’s pretty much what the president does,” Freeman said.
Freeman’s connection with students isn’t just about policies or programs; it’s also about sharing fun and unexpected moments on campus. She laughed, recalling students helping her remember the steps of the wobble at the President’s Picnic, her love for the late-night breakfast during finals week or enjoying food trucks and ramen trips near campus.
“I line dance three times a year, and the President’s Picnic is one of them. It always takes me a few minutes to remember all the stuff. So I go out there to do the wobble, and I would have been fine in four turns. But I’m like, how does this go again?” Freeman said.
Freeman recalled that a student stepped in to guide her through the dance.
“A student comes up to me, and she’s like, ‘I’ll help you.’ And she’s like, ‘To the front, to the back.’ And so we finished, and I was like, ‘Thank you.’ I assumed she knew I was the president, but she didn’t, and she said, ‘Are you an older student here?’ And I said, ‘No,’ and she said, ‘Well, it was really fun dancing with you, I enjoyed it, thank you.’ She thought I was a 60-year-old graduate who needed help wobbling, and she was there for me,” Freeman said.
Freeman sees education as more than just majors and minors; it’s about courses, career services and experiences. Under her leadership, NIU has launched new programs like a cybersecurity degree and certificate, and adapted existing programs to ones that better align with the skills employers are looking for.
“When a program is dropped, it’s not sad, it’s not a loss, it just means perhaps the needs of the students, the community and who’s going to employ them have changed,” Freeman said.
What truly excites Freeman is the students themselves. She enjoys their kindness, engagement and creativity.
“What I noticed this year was, especially during the Week of Welcome in the early parts of the semester, when students didn’t all know each other, that if a student was standing alone and looking kind of confused, students would just go over and say, ‘Hey, join my group,’” Freeman said.
Freeman takes particular pride in the campus’s diversity and the way students engage with each other and the community.
“I saw little kids go up to our students,” Freeman said. “They go up to our engineers in their rover cars, and they go up to our Latin dancers and say, ‘Could you teach me that dance?’ It made me so proud to feel that our students were role models for the community.”
Freeman finds joy in the connections that make NIU a community.
“I think students should know that I really care about them. I really care about the way they feel when they’re here and when they leave,” Freeman said.
It’s her compassion paired with connections that guide Freeman’s leadership, and reminds everyone at NIU that students are not just learners, but part of a community that inspires and uplifts one another.
