Leadership updates recap: The U of A leaders appointed over the past year

Over the past year, the University of Arizona has appointed nationally prominent leaders to senior roles as part of ongoing leadership transitions.

The appointments reflect the momentum building across the institution and the university’s ability to draw top talent from across higher education. Some came from within the U of A, bringing extensive connections and deep institutional knowledge, while others joined from universities across the country, offering new perspectives and experiences.

Together, they are part of a leadership team that is helping shape work already underway across the U of A's colleges and divisions and advance the university's strategic imperatives. 

“I am very pleased to welcome these outstanding leaders to the University of Arizona,” said President Suresh Garimella. “We have attracted individuals of exceptional caliber: scholars, innovators and administrators who bring deep expertise and a genuine commitment to our mission. Student success is our North Star, and with this team in place, I am confident in our continued progress to deliver on our promise.”

The leaders take on their roles at a time when the university is building on recent progress in student success through implementation of the Academic Success Goals, strengthening the U of A's position as a preeminent public research university and solidifying a strong foundation for the future.

“Our new leaders bring a healthy mix of institutional knowledge and outside perspective to our university," said Provost and Chief Academic Officer Patricia Prelock. "They understand the strengths we can build on while bringing new ideas and experiences that can help us think differently about the opportunities ahead. I’m excited to see how their leadership will help advance our academic mission and support the success of our students, faculty and staff.”

Here’s a look at the leaders appointed from September 2025 to September 2026, listed from the most recent appointment to the earliest. Each profile includes their title and professional background. 

Bettyjo H. Bouchey
Senior Vice Provost for Online Education
Start date: Sept. 14, 2026

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Bouchey is a nationally recognized leader in online learning, academic innovation and digital transformation. She joined the University of Arizona from the University of Vermont, where she served as chief officer of professional and continuing education. There, she led the growth of the university's online education offerings, expanding online and hybrid degree programs, workforce development initiatives and lifelong learning opportunities.

Previously, she served as the inaugural vice provost for digital strategy and operations at National Louis University, where she oversaw online education, competency-based education, credit for prior learning, instructional design and academic innovation.

A first-generation college student, Bouchey has dedicated her career to expanding student opportunities through innovative learner pathways and transformative approaches to teaching and learning. Her research examines the evolution of online education organizations, institutional transformation and high-impact educational practices, including the thoughtful application of artificial intelligence in higher education.

Read Bouchey’s appointment announcement on the Office of the Provost website.

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Christopher K. Finch
Dean, R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy
Start date: Aug. 1, 2026

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Finch is an accomplished researcher and academic leader committed to scholarly excellence. Throughout his career, he has advanced the pharmaceutical profession with dedication to strategic leadership, faculty development, and clinical and educational innovation.

Finch previously served as chair and professor at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he coordinated and taught several courses and developed a required course in health-system pharmacy outcomes and management. 

His clinical interests include pulmonary disease, drug interactions, adverse drug events and drug-induced disease. Finch received a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy.

Finch has published over 80 manuscripts in leading pharmacy and medical journals and has spoken at several national medical and pharmacy conferences. He is a fellow in both the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. He was named Tom C. Sharp Pharmacist of the Year in 2019 by the Tennessee Pharmacist Association. Finch was also selected to join the 2024 cohort of the University of Tennessee Executive Leadership Institute.

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Smith previously served as a professor of animal science at Michigan State University. He also served in senior leadership roles as director of AgBioResearch and senior associate dean for research in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. As director, he provided strategic leadership and administrative oversight for AgBioResearch, a universitywide program dedicated to innovative solutions for agriculture, food systems and the environment, with impact reaching across Michigan, the nation and beyond. The program supported approximately 300 scientists working across seven MSU colleges, 15 research centers throughout Michigan, and a broad network of on-campus facilities and critical research infrastructure.

Smith holds a doctorate and master’s degree in animal science from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho. During his time at MSU, he received sustained funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health and authored 143 journal articles and 17 book chapters. As his career evolved toward research administration and college leadership, he helped grow global research partnerships in more than 50 countries to strengthen agricultural productivity and food security.

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Kreag had served as interim dean since January 2025. A member of the law faculty since 2013, he has established himself as a respected educator, scholar and colleague. As associate dean, a role he held beginning in 2020, he was instrumental in strengthening the college’s academic programs, fostering innovation and guiding the community through challenging times.

Kreag’s teaching and scholarship focus on critical issues in the criminal justice system, including prosecutorial misconduct, forensic science, wrongful convictions and the intersection of technology and privacy. His widely cited research, published in leading law reviews such as Vanderbilt Law Review, Boston University Law Review and Stanford Law Review Online, has influenced both academic discourse and legal practice.

Beyond his scholarly contributions, Kreag is a highly regarded teacher and mentor. He received honors from the James E. Rogers College of Law including Administrator of the Year, the Leslie F. and Patricia Bell Faculty Service Award and Teacher of the Year. His dedication to education and service reflects the core values of the college.

Prior to joining the James E. Rogers College of Law, Kreag served as a staff attorney at the Innocence Project. He also worked at the Southern Center for Human Rights, handling post-conviction capital cases. 

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Deil-Amen had served as interim dean since April 2025 and has been part of the college since 2007. Over that time, she has held several leadership roles, including director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education and head of the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice from 2020 to 2023. As an associate dean for faculty affairs from 2023 to 2025, she championed faculty development and supported research and scholarship that advanced teaching, learning and community engagement.

As interim dean, she prioritized building a collegewide student recruitment and retention strategy, forging new school partnerships, strengthening alumni relations and creating new student funding opportunities. She implemented more routine financial reporting and increased transparency for the college community and built a culture of support for faculty and staff. Deil-Amen also advanced fundraising efforts that surpassed the college goal by nearly 200%.

A nationally recognized scholar, Deil-Amen’s research centers on college access, student transitions to four-year institutions and evidence-based practices that promote student success. She served as the principal investigator for the Pima–UAZ STEM Bridge program, a $4.8 million NSF-funded initiative supporting Pima Community College students transferring to the University of Arizona to pursue STEM degrees. Her scholarship includes numerous publications in leading academic journals and the co-authored book "After Admission: From College Access to College Success."

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Anderson had served as interim dean since July 2025. A member of the optical sciences faculty since 2001, he has been deeply engaged in graduate teaching and research throughout his career. As associate dean for Graduate Academic Affairs, a role he held beginning in 2019, he led significant growth and development of the college’s graduate programs and guided, advised and mentored hundreds of master’s and doctoral students.

Anderson’s research centers on the physics of Bose-Einstein condensates, the coldest substances in the known universe, which can only be created and studied in state-of-the-art optics laboratories. For more than 25 years, his internationally recognized experimental and theoretical work has explored how these systems behave as both fluids and quantum-mechanical entities at extremely low temperatures.

His widely cited research has appeared in leading journals, including "Science," "Nature" and "Physical Review Letters," and has been supported by multiple government grants. His work has contributed important insights into complex physical phenomena such as superfluidity and turbulence. As an educator, Anderson has taught graduate-level quantum mechanics for more than two decades and is the author of "Field Guide to Quantum Mechanics."

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Elliott had served as interim CIO since January 2025, successfully leading the University Information Technology Services team during a period of transition and significant change.

He previously served in multiple leadership positions at the U of A, including associate dean for the College of Science, interim dean of the W.A. Franke Honors College and the College of Science, associate vice president for Research Institutes, and interim senior vice president for Research and Innovation. Throughout his tenure, he has earned a reputation as a thoughtful, collaborative leader with a quiet determination to drive steady progress toward our shared mission and the success of students, faculty and staff.

Cheu, who joined the U of A in 1996, is a University Distinguished Professor of Physics and one of the most highly cited researchers at the university. He is an accomplished scientist and educator who continues to run a successful research program that studies the fundamental particles and forces in the universe. His most recent research activities involve searching for evidence of dark matter at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

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Prior to this role, Reinhardt served as associate vice president for research communications at the U of A, where she designed and integrated a unified research communications team, establishing the structure and systems needed to support long-term visibility and strategic growth. She also served as associate vice president for communications for Health Sciences, advancing cross-unit alignment, risk navigation and executive communications across six colleges, 12 centers and clinical partners.

Reinhardt brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience across global research organizations, academic institutions and public health nonprofits. As senior vice president for communications at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, she led global brand and identity alignment, issues management and executive visibility across a multisite international research enterprise.

Earlier in her career, Reinhardt held senior communications roles at Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, supporting organizational transformation and global public health initiatives. She began her career at France Telecom North America, guiding leadership during a period of significant corporate transition.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in French and international studies from Yale University.

Read Reinhardt’s biography on the Office of the President website.

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Clifton "Cliff" M. Iler
General Counsel
Start date: Nov. 6, 2025

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Iler brings three decades of experience in higher education and healthcare law to the role. His legal expertise includes higher education governance, research and compliance, health care law, employment and faculty matters, and First Amendment and constitutional issues. 

He previously served as university counsel and senior assistant attorney general at the University of Virginia, where the senior legal adviser to the institution reports to the state's attorney general.

Before joining UVA, Iler worked at the University of Kentucky, where he held the positions of deputy general counsel for faculty, students and research, and associate general counsel for healthcare. Earlier in his career, he worked at MCG Health Inc., affiliated with the Medical College of Georgia, and with Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta as part of the firm's products liability and litigation and trial practice groups.

Iler earned degrees in English and economics from Centre College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Kentucky College of Law.

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Prior to this appointment, Rickus served as senior vice provost for teaching and learning at Purdue University, where she provided strategic leadership for undergraduate education, academic affairs and student success initiatives. Her work at Purdue was instrumental in transforming the student learning experience and strengthening academic programs and classroom teaching across the institution.

She is a bioengineer and interdisciplinary scholar and inventor with expertise in biofunctional materials and biosensors. She has degrees in biochemistry and agricultural engineering from Purdue University and worked as an engineer in the food industry before earning a doctorate in neuroscience and neuroengineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Her research centers on engineered biomaterials for sensing and interacting with living cells and tissues, particularly in the brain and pancreas. Rickus co-founded a collaborative Physiological Sensing Facility to develop new technologies with applications in cell physiology, implantable therapeutics and integrated sensing platforms. Her work addresses critical challenges including brain cancer, diabetes, foodborne illness and space biology and has been supported by major agencies including the NIH, NSF, NASA and DARPA.

She has developed impactful academic programs and received numerous awards for teaching, mentoring and research leadership, and has secured more than $112 million in funded grants.

Rickus has won numerous awards for her work including the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Outstanding Teacher in Biomedical Engineering, the Mortar Board National College Honor Society Alumni Achievement Award and the National Academic Advising Association Michael C. Holen Pacesetter Award.

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Cruz has returned to the U of A, where he previously served as assistant vice president for communications. He most recently served as interim vice chancellor for university advancement and interim president of the UC Riverside Foundation, overseeing the university's development and alumni engagement functions. 

He also served as UC Riverside’s chief communications and marketing officer, leading an integrated marketing, communications and events team that helped significantly elevate the university's national reputation, contributing to its admission into the Association of American Universities in 2023.

Cruz has more than 25 years of communications and marketing experience at public research universities and global nonprofit organizations, including leading the external communications unit at Make-A-Wish America and directing public relations for the global humanitarian organization World Vision.

Cruz is a nationally recognized higher education leader and practitioner. In 2023, he was named a finalist for national higher education marketer of the year by the American Marketing Association.

He chairs the Council on Strategic Communications executive committee for the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and is on the APLU Board of Directors.