The University of Virginia announced today that Teresa A. Sullivan will become the institution’s eighth president.

Sullivan said she was drawn to the University of Virginia because of its Jeffersonian values and traditions, its academic reputation, its powerful undergraduate student experience and its firm commitment to a public mission.

“It is one of the truly great public universities in the country,” she said. “In fact, it is one of the great universities in the world.

“I am honored by the opportunity to lead this University – and to follow John Casteen in this role. He has set the standard for what it is to be a university president and a leader in higher education.”

Sullivan is the provost and executive vice president of the University of Michigan.  She also previously worked for 27 years at the University of Texas at Austin.

She has some big shoes to fill in following UVa’s current president,  John T. Casteen III, who is retiring this summer.

Casteen, who has long been a supporter of Virginia’s Community Colleges, will soon become even more familiar with them by becoming a member of the board of the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education (VFCCE) – a wonderful addition to the foundation board that has garned a good deal of media attention.

Posted by Jeffrey Kraus