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Ana Mari Cauce selected as UW president

Editor’s note: This is UW Board of Regents chair Bill Ayer’s email message to the UW community.

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

It is my distinct honor to announce that the Board of Regents has selected Ana Mari Cauce to serve as the 33rd president of the University of Washington.

President Cauce is truly of Washington, exemplifying the values of our University and our state in every respect. She is a highly respected member of the faculty, having joined the UW as an assistant professor of psychology in 1986 and rising through the ranks while increasing her responsibilities through a number of leadership positions, most recently as interim president. She is a recipient of the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award and is an accomplished scholar, most notably for her clinical research in adolescent development, specifically youth at risk. Raised in Miami after immigrating to the United States from Cuba as a child, she inherited her parents’ passion for education, earning degrees in English and psychology from the University of Miami and a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University.

The Board of Regents believe President Cauce has demonstrated that her enthusiasm, humility, tenacity, honesty, courage, keen intellect and deep belief in and genuine affection for the UW are just the right ingredients to lead our University to even greater impact and prominence in the coming years. She will focus on ensuring all students are ready for successful, engaged lives by enhancing the Husky Experience; on spurring the research and scholarship that truly transforms our world; and on continuing to infuse a spirit of innovation and creativity throughout the University.

We believe her nearly 30 years as a member of the faculty, as a leader in the greater Seattle community, and her well-known dedication to students will enable the University to forge and deepen relationships that are crucial to our success. And as a passionate champion of equity and inclusion and of higher education as the key to social mobility for first-generation and low-income students, we know she will both embody and remind us all about the deep importance of our work as a proudly public university – a University for Washington and for the world.

In honor of this occasion, please join us for a community reception on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the HUB Ballroom, after the Annual President’s Address at 3:30 p.m. at wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House.

Thank you for the insights you shared with the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and the Board of Regents during this search. I hope you will join us in celebrating this remarkable leader and historic moment for the University of Washington.

Sincerely,

Bill Ayer
Chair, Board of Regents