Phyllis M. Wise, former dean of biological sciences at UC Davis, has been appointed interim president of the University of Washington, commencing in the fall.
At UC Davis. she led what was then the Division of Biological Sciences from 2002 to 2005. The division has since become a college.
Wise left here to become UW’s second highest-ranking administrator: provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs. She continues in those roles today, serving as the university’s chief academic and chief budget officer.
The UW Board of Regents voted July 8 to appoint her as interim president, upon Mark Emmert’s departure to become president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Wise will be the first woman and the first Asian American to serve as UW president, according to a university news release. While she serves as interim president, the university will conduct a national search for Emmert’s successor.
The UW president is the chief administrator for the flagship Seattle campus and two branch campuses, in Bothell and Tacoma (each branch has a chancellor; the Seattle campus does not). The three-campus system enrolled more than 47,000 students in 2009-10.
“I am honored and excited to serve the University of Washington in this new role,” Wise said. “The UW is truly one of the most respected institutions of higher education in the world, with remarkable faculty, amazing staff and wonderful students.
“I look forward to forging ahead on many fronts and to working with the community to build on our strengths and create new opportunities for the University of Washington to make a difference.”
UW Board of Regents Chair Herb Simon said: "Phyllis Wise brings exceptional strengths to this position and provides essential continuity in leadership in these challenging times in the university's history.
"She has been a thoughtful architect of the university's response to unprecedented economic times and reductions in its state budget and has managed to protect the academic core of the institution as much as possible.
“She was instrumental in bringing about the establishment of the new College of the Environment and has led a number of highly successful searches for academic leadership among the university's deans and vice provosts.”
Wise is a professor of physiology and biophysics, biology, and obstetrics and gynecology. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine.
Before coming to UC Davis, she was a professor at the University of Kentucky, serving as chair of the Department of Physiology from 1993 to 2002. She was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, from 1976 to 1993.
She holds a bachelor's degree (1967) from Swarthmore College in biology, a doctorate (1972) in zoology from the University of Michigan and an honorary doctor of science (2008) from Swarthmore.
Wise has maintained an active research program in issues concerning women's health and gender-based biology. She has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and has received two MERIT Awards, which provide funding for innovative research over a 10-year period of time.
She has served on a number of advisory committees, including NIH study sections, the Council for the National Institute on Aging, the RAND Health Board, the Ellison Medical Foundation Board and the Bullitt Foundation Board.
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Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu