On March 31, 2026, Associate Provost and Director of Columbia University Press Jennifer Crewe will retire after forty years at the Press. Her career reflects a steady track that began during graduate school as a part-time editorial assistant and culminated in 2014, when she became the first female director of an Ivy League Press.

Throughout her four decades in publishing, Crewe not only helped shape the industry but also guided the Press with a strategic direction that strengthened ties with Columbia University, while working to create more equitable pathways for women in publishing. In addition to her leadership at Columbia University Press, her service work across the industry and in professional associations contributed to changes that continue to this day.

In recognition of Women’s History Month and its theme, Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future—which highlights women who have reimagined and rebuilt systems to ensure enduring impact across educational, economic, and cultural spheres—we spoke with Crewe about her path to leadership and the lasting impact of her efforts to integrate the Press with Columbia University.

Maritza Herrera-Diaz: Your first foray into publishing was while you were an MFA student, taking on a part-time role at Columbia University Press. After graduating, you chose to remain in publishing. What was it about academic publishing that felt right to you at that moment? When did you realize that it was more than just a job—it was a career path?

Jennifer Crewe: I needed a job during graduate school. I was an MFA student at the Columbia School of Arts and worked part-time at the Press, and realized that I liked this kind of work—you had one foot in the business world and one in the scholarly world. Also, I knew I’d need a job after school was over, and I never wanted to be taught poetry by someone like me—just out of school—so I thought others would feel the same. A string of adjunct jobs wouldn’t bring in enough money—not that publishing did, but at least it was a more or less stable job. I climbed up the ladder there, and when I became an acquisitions editor at Scribners and then at Macmillan, thought I would stay in publishing. I returned to Columbia University Press in 1986. And while at various points in my life I was offered other jobs, I decided that this was the place for me. Like many women, I found it wasn’t easy to uproot my family and move elsewhere.

Herrera-Diaz: You’ve shared the story of refusing to learn to type in high school because you “didn’t want to end up a secretary,” only to recognize later how essential that skill was for professional advancement. Looking back, what did that experience teach you? What advice do you have for women who find themselves “stuck” in a role because of their skills and expertise? How can they break the cycle to move their career forward?

Crewe: Now everyone learns to type in third grade, but that wasn’t the case when I went to school. Men rarely learned; women learned as young adults, and many went on to become secretaries. The experience of learning to type in order to slowly retype my boss’s letters (composed on a manual typewriter and then meticulously copyedited) on an IBM Selectric was humbling, but I learned a lot through typing those letters, as he was writing to authors about their manuscripts. I’d say you definitely need certain skills for certain jobs, and if you don’t have those skills, attain them. Once you have them, step in and do the work that you might not have been asked to do. Show that you are eager and willing and that you have the skills.

Herrera-Diaz: You’ve mentioned turning to service work when advancement to press directorship seemed out of reach. In what way did this work empower you or give you agency within the industry? When you think about the changes that came out of those efforts, which ones are most meaningful to you today? And how did these experiences shape your leadership journey?

Crewe: Well, I always did “service work,” but at a certain point, I felt I wasn’t advancing in the company, so I leaned more into that work. In book acquisitions one faces into the company and develops a reputation there, but also faces outward to authors, to the university, and to the industry and other scholarly organizations. So you have two different positions in the world. When the inward-facing one wasn’t working as well for me, I did more in the outward-facing part of the job. Some publishing positions are better situated than others for developing that outward-facing reputation, but I do think it’s important both to know what’s going on outside your specific place of work and to develop a reputation in your industry. That reputation will help you in your job, but it may also lead to other opportunities elsewhere.

On the MLA Executive Council, I offered information that was from outside the professor group in the academy, and that was helpful, or at least different from what the group had. At the Association of University Presses I offered what was useful to the group, coming from a smaller press within the larger cohort of presses. These experiences, and learning from others in positions of leadership at their presses, both larger and smaller than Columbia, helped inform my management skills at my home press.

Herrera-Diaz: As you are an alumna of Columbia University, how did your connection to the institution shape your approach to leading the Press? How did that perspective influence the way you navigated relationships across the university?

Crewe: Being an alumna made me care about the university in a way that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Not that you need to have a degree from the university you work for. It just instills in you the importance and the particularities of the place early on. When I first started working for the Press, of course, I knew a number of the faculty from having taken their courses, and I wasn’t afraid to approach them or their colleagues for advice.

Herrera-Diaz: The Press became formally integrated into the university during your leadership. In what ways did this integration strengthen the Press’s role within the university, and why did you see that as a strategic priority?

Crewe: I had clear goals when I became director, and I was lucky in that the provost had similar goals. From the start, it was important to me that we become formally integrated into the university as a unit. The Press had been created in 1893 as an affiliate of the university and was a separate 501(c)(3) organization. As a result, many at the university didn’t know what we did, or even that we existed. I felt strongly that we should be clearly aligned with the university’s academic mission and priorities, and more visible to faculty and administrators. So I set about making that change.

Educating the Columbia community about the Press took much longer than I expected. It took time for various nonfaculty offices of the university to understand who we were and how we operated, and it also took longer than I thought for the staff to make the transition. But eventually we did, and it has been, in my view, a great thing.

When the university took over administrative details like payroll and benefits, my time opened up so that I could focus on our core mission. For example, I no longer spent hours dealing with insurance firms and renegotiating plans each year. Our staff gained better benefits, and I was freed from the constant management of those logistics.

That shift allowed me to focus on the work that really matters: building relationships with faculty and administrators, carefully considering the challenges facing our industry, and adapting accordingly. It had always been clear to me that the quality of what we publish is paramount to the faculty. So when I became director, we concentrated on strengthening that commitment, and over time, that focus has made a visible difference.

Herrera-Diaz: One of the things you did was to establish both an Advisory Council and a Faculty Advisory Board. Why did you feel it was important to create additional advisory structures beyond the existing Faculty Publications Committee, and how have these groups provided guidance for the Press to grow?

Crewe: When we were still our own 501(c)(3), we had a board of trustees, which included a number of publishers, and that structure worked well for the Press, though I think it was confusing to university administrators. After our transition, I didn’t want to lose that kind of thoughtful guidance, so we created new versions of what had already proven effective. The Faculty Advisory Board is made up of Columbia faculty who really have their finger on the pulse of the university. When we’re thinking through major strategic decisions—about the publishing program or about the Press’s place within the institution—they’re the people I turn to. I value their advice enormously, and I feel lucky to have the support of colleagues I so deeply respect.

In 2016 when I started our fundraising program, I established the Press’s Advisory Council—a group of deeply committed advisors who care about what we do and bring experience from the worlds of nonprofit organizations, the publishing industry, Columbia University, and for-profit business. They’ve helped us think through fundraising, of course, but also many of our other outward-facing initiatives. Over time, their insight and advocacy have helped us build reputational capital with donors and readers alike.