The new dean of Pace University”™s computer science school says Westchester and Fairfield counties are poised to become a significant technology hub, and the college intends to be a part of that.
Pace named Jonathan H. Hill as dean of Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, effective July 1, after a lengthy national search. He had been serving as interim dean since September and was previously the associate dean.
Hill said there has been a lot of talk about the loss of technology jobs as Fortune 500 companies have moved out of the region. But there is a counter-trend. Many technology jobs are unfilled here, and young professionals, for example, are moving out of Brooklyn to places like Tarrytown and Mount Kisco to work for technology companies.
“Students today are invested in identifying ways to solve complicated problems, like global warming or dirty drinking water,” he said. “Computer science at its heart is a problem-solving discipline.”
The Seidenberg School has about 1,200 full-time and 600 part-time students at campuses in Lower Manhattan and Pleasantville. Hill will oversee a faculty of 34 full-time instructors and more than 50 subject matter experts.
“This is an incredibly exciting time to be in technology education,” Hill said.  “Absolutely, the school is going to grow and pivot to meet the needs of the technology industry that is growing exponentially. The opportunities in Westchester County are unprecedented.”
He said Seidenberg, founded in 1983, is the third-oldest continuous school of computer science in the country. He said it is strong in cyber security, software engineering, mobile development and artificial intelligence. Its newest offering is big data and enterprise analytics.
Hill”™s career has straddled academia and business development.
He is a principal at EngineerRe, a consulting firm that advises organizations on changing the way they do business to achieve optimal functionality. He worked in business development for the travel website Travelocity from 2000 to 2002.
He was on the faculty of Kingsborough Community College for 15 years. He joined Pace in 2003.
Hill is a founder and director of the Pace STEM Collaboratory and Seidenberg Creative Labs. He planned and developed the scholars program for talented first-year students. He has worked on government and corporate programs with organizations such as Google, Microsoft and the New York Economic Development Corp.
Hill received a bachelor of arts in international relations from the University of the Pacific, a master of business administration from City University of New York and a doctor of professional studies from Pace.
