A bio box for Barry Maloney
Updated: 3 hours ago
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2025 Business Leaders of the Year
Business Leaders of the Year: Maloney leads with integrity to grow the WSU community
Photo I Courtesy of Matt Wright
Barry Maloney, president of Worcester State University
With eight colleges and universities in Worcester alone, Worcester State University President Barry Maloney knows Central Massachusetts’ college-age population has options. He isn’t fazed.
As the head of the largest state university in Central Mass., Maloney dovetails the needs of the institution with its financial objectives, all while putting people first.
“As a public institution, I want people to know this is the people's university,” he said.
For Maloney, public means accessibility, and he sees WSU as being in the business of upward social mobility for its students.
Currently, 78% of WSU students receive financial aid with the average annual award totalling $10,000. Last year, the school awarded $23 million in federal, state, institutional, and donor scholarships and grants.
“He clearly understands and leads in a way that says, ‘People come first, students come first, employees come first, and if we do that, then everything else tends to fall in line,’” said Robert Johnson, president of Western New England University in Springfield, who has been friends with Maloney for 15 years, back when Johnson was president of the now-closed Becker College.
That focus has helped Worcester State buck the statewide trend of failing enrollment at state universities. While total headcount of all students at all state universities is down 5% since fiscal 2022, enrollment is up 7% at Worcester State, the highest enrollment growth of all state universities, according to fiscal 2024 data from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.
Not only are more students attending Worcester State, but they are doing better as the student body becomes more diverse. Maloney has grown the university’s six-year graduation rate to 61.5% in 2024 from the 48.8% when he took over as president in 2011. In fall 2024, 44% of the school’s new student population were people of color, a significant increase from fall 2011 when 26% of new students were people of color.
He has increased the WSU’s annual fundraising by 101.7% from $2.1 million in 2011 to $4.4 million in 2024 and increased the Worcester State Foundation endowment by 248.3% from $15.3 million to $53.3 million.
Instead of viewing WSU as solely an academic institution, Maloney encourages his faculty and staff to use it as a research laboratory.
“Learning can happen in the community, and it can help to problem solve; and it can help to also expand learning understanding on a multitude of different topics,” said Maloney.
One example of such expansion is the university’s Early College Worcester Program. Launched as part of a state program in partnership with Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester and the Worcester Public Schools, the initiative offers high school students college credits toward their associate or bachelor’s degree.
With 95.8% of the university's students hailing from Massachusetts, and 69.5% from Central Massachusetts specifically in fall 2024, Maloney sees WSU as fostering the next generation of skilled and educated contributors to the region.
“So in some ways, I'm just acting as a conduit to get our students back and helping out their own communities,” said Maloney.
While many leaders pontificate words, preaching about how things should be done, Maloney actually shows up, said Johnson. A landmark example of Maloney’s dedication was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He did “everything that he could pragmatically and realistically to still perpetuate the educational enterprise, to protect the employees, and to help students become the best versions of themselves,” said Johnson.
During the pandemic, WSU partnered with Worcester’s Saint Vincent Hospital and UMass Chan Medical School to open a vaccination clinic on WSU’s campus. The university ended up administering close to 90,000 vaccinations, enlisting the help of the school's nursing students whose own access to practical nursing experience was limited.
Eager to highlight the contributions of others, Maloney emphasizes feats like these take a team, one that is carefully built.
When recruiting for open positions, Maloney will take someone who is ethically grounded over someone with more experience any day of the week, he said.
WSU’s student population includes 53% first-generation students. Having employees with integrity is imperative when they encounter trepidation from students concerned over whether they should attend college and questioning about how they fit in.
“We have to start those conversations off grounded in honesty and grounded in sincerity, and then to keep true to that going forward,” said Maloney.
While Maloney holds integrity as an imperative for those he works with, he’s no different with himself: He walks the walk, said Johnson.
“He will always be his authentic self,” he said. “What you see is what you get, and ... you can't ask much more from a leader than to be true to themselves.”
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
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