JJC President Gena Proulx, 66, Dies Following Tough Cancer Battle

Gena Proulx, president of Joliet Junior College since 2006, died today following a three-year struggle with fallopian tube cancer.

Proulx, 66, was the seventh president in the school's history and the first woman appointed to the post. During her tenure, seven major construction projects were undertaken, including an expanded downtown Joliet campus.

Proulx, a Shorewood resident, is survived by her husband, Bill, and three adult daughters. Services are pending.

Remembrances and condolences may be posted on the Joliet Junior College Web site at http://jjc.edu/about/administration/presidents-office/Pages/default.aspx.

Joliet Junior College includes all or part Will, Grundy, Kendall, LaSalle, Kankakee, Livingston and Cook counties, and a large number of students from Plainfield attend the two-year school.

Before coming to JJC, Proulx was the president of Dundalk and Essex campuses at The Community College of Baltimore County for six years. She also held faculty and administrative posts at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, Genesee Community College in Batavia, N.Y., and Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, N.Y.

At the time she was hired, she said she was attracted to JJC because it was the first public community college in the nation with deep historical roots, according to a JJC release issued Friday about Proulx's death.

One of Proulx's major accomplishments was college’s master plan, which was launched in 2008. It would come to constitute the largest physical changes to JJC's main campus on Houboldt Road in Joliet in the school's 40-year existence, according to the JJC release.

Proulx, a strong supporter of the international honors society, Phi Theta Kappa, led to her being honored with the Regional Coordinator’s Award in 2004 and the Center for Excellence Brick Recognition in 2001, both while at the Community College of Baltimore County, the release said.

She was also a strong advocate of the "green" movement. In 2009, she signed the historic American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, an effort by institutions across the country to address global climate disruption, eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations, and educate students in the process.

In addition to being a member of the American Association of Community Colleges Commission on Communication and Marketing, Proulx also served on the Provena St. Joseph Medical Center Board of Directors, the Will County Center for Economic Development and the Will County Workforce Investment Board, and was a member of the Joliet Rotary Club.