Iowa Vice President Chosen as Next UA Provost

Johnny Cruz
Feb. 22, 2008



President Robert N. Shelton today announced that he has selected Meredith Hay, currently the vice president for research for the University of Iowa, to be The University of Arizona’s next executive vice president and provost. Her appointment is subject to approval by the Arizona Board of Regents at its March meeting.

As provost, Hay will become the chief academic officer of the University, overseeing all academic programs and units, and serve as the UA’s chief operating officer. She also will receive a tenured appointment as professor of physiology at the UA College of Medicine.

Hay was selected from a field of more than 60 applicants, including three finalists who were invited for on-campus interviews in January and early February.

"I am truly honored to be invited to join The University of Arizona family,” said Hay. “The UA is one of the very best universities in the country – its commitment to student-centered excellence, its work and outreach to improve the lives and well being of the citizens of Arizona and the world, its bold and world-renowned research ranging from plant genetics to planetary exploration are all very exciting. I look forward to meeting and working with the Tucson and Arizona communities as well as the faculty, students and staff to continue to advance and celebrate the excellence that defines the UA."

In April 2007, Shelton appointed a 27-member search committee to identify and interview candidates for the position. Vicki Chandler, Regents’ Professor of plant sciences and director of the BIO5 Institute, served as chairwoman of the search committee.

”Meredith Hay is an outstanding scholar and exceptional executive, and we are fortunate she will be filling such a crucial leadership role at the UA,” Shelton said. “The University has made tremendous strides in recent years. Having someone of Meredith’s caliber to lead our academic enterprise portends great things for our future.”

Hay will assume her new position on April 30. She replaces Gene Sander, who has served as provost since the retirement of George Davis in June. Sander will return to his position as vice president for outreach and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

At the University of Iowa, Hay provides central leadership for all of the university's research, scholarly and creative programs, including its academic medical center.

Hay has worked closely with state legislators and federal representatives, private sector representatives and local community groups to broaden both private and public support for the university. She led a significant reorganization of the university’s economic development efforts, with a focus on improving public access to the university, enhancing its technology licensing and commercialization activities and creating better opportunities for new university-initiated small business startups.

In addition to her duties as vice president for research, Hay has continued to sustain a vigorous research program and leads an actively NIH-funded research laboratory. She is internationally known for her research in cardiovascular neurobiology and her current studies on the role of sex and sex differences in the development of hypertension.

Prior to joining the University of Iowa, Hay served as assistant to the vice president for academic affairs at the University of Missouri-System and director of the National Center for Gender Physiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

She maintains active participation in the American Physiological Society, the Society for Neuroscience, AAAS, and serves on numerous editorial boards of prestigious scientific journals and grant review panels for the NIH and the National American Heart Association. She serves on advisory committees for NASA, NIH, the AAU and the Federation of Associated Societies for Experimental Biology.

A Texas native, Hay earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado, Denver; her master’s degree in neurobiology from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and her doctorate in cardiovascular pharmacology from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center-San Antonio.

She trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the Cardiovascular Center at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1996, she was a faculty member in the Department of Physiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio.

Located in Tucson, Ariz., the UA is one of the nation's leading public universities, with a long history of academic excellence, research innovation and a student-centered approach. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, the UA is ranked 13th among public universities by the National Science Foundation with total research expenditures last year of $530 million. With more than 37,000 students across three campuses representing 50 states and 124 nations, the UA is on the forefront of discoveries – from the depths of space to the medical and genetic mysteries of life, from emerging trends in climate change to the broad complexities of the human condition.

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Johnny Cruz

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