UW-Madison names finalists in search for new chancellor

MADISON, Wis. — The list of candidates to take over as UW-Madison chancellor is down to five.

Interim President Michael Falbo announced the finalists Wednesday, as the school continues to search for a replacement for Rebbeca Blank. Blank announced last October that she would be leaving at the end of the academic year to become president of Northwestern University.

The finalists were picked by a 21-member committee and will begin interviews in Madison next week. The committee will also hear feedback from students, faculty and deans before referring a single candidate to the Board of Regents for approval.

The finalists are:

Ann Cudd
Marie Lynn Miranda
Jennifer L. Mnookin
Daniel A. Reed
John Karl Scholz

Ann Cudd

Cudd currently serves as Provost, Senior Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.

She also served as Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston University from 2015 to 2018 and was the Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Kansas from 2013 to 2015.

She earned her Bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore College in 1982 then moved to the University of Pittsburgh where she earned Master’s degrees in Philosophy and Economics and a Ph.D. in Philosophy.

She was named a Fellow at Pitt’s Center for Philosophy of Science and was inducted into KU’s Women’s Hall of Fame in 2008.

A Q&A session with Cudd will be held on May 4 from 4:30 p.m.. to 5:30 p.m. at Tripp Commons in Memorial Union.

Marie Lynn Miranda

Miranda is a Professor of Applied Computational Mathematics and Statistics and a former Provost at Notre Dame.

Before her time at Notre Dame, she served as a Provost at Rice University in Houston from 2015 to 2019. She was the school’s principal liaison to the Texas Medical Center, which houses the largest children’s hospital and largest cancer hospital in the world.

Miranda is familiar with the Big Ten. She served as a Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. She also served as the Director of Undergraduate Programs for the School of the Environment at Duke.

She earned her Arts Baccalaureate in Mathematics and Economics from Duke in 1985, a Masters of Arts in Economics from Harvard in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard in 1990.

A Q&A session with Miranda will be held on May 5 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Tripp Commons in Memorial Union.

Jennifer L. Mnookin

Mnookin is a Professor and Dean at the UCLA School of Law.

She also served as a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law from 2003 to 2005, and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2004.

Mnookin earned her A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard in 1988, her J.D. from Yale in 1995, and her Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1999. She was an editor for both the Harvard Crimson and Yale Law Journal.

A Q&A session with Mnookin will be held on May 3 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Tripp Commons in Memorial Union.

Daniel A. Reed

Reed is a Presidential Professor of Computational Science and a former Provost at the University of Utah.

He previously served as a professor at the Universities of Iowa, UNC and Illinois. He served as the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Utah from 2018 to 2021.

Reed served as Corporate Vice President at Microsoft from 2009 to 2012 where he represented the company in front of the United Nations and World Economic Forum.

He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Missouri S&T in 1978, his Master’s in Computer Science from Purdue in 1980, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue in 1983.

A Q&A session with Reed will be held on May 2 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Tripp Commons in Memorial Union.

John Karl Scholz

Scholz is a Provost and Professor of Economic Policy at UW-Madison.

Before his time as Provost, he served as Dean of the College of Letters & Science at UW from 2019 to 2019. He also served as the Economics Department Chair at UW from 2011 to 2013.

Before his time at UW, Scholz served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis. He also worked on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the H.W. Bush administration.

He earned his Bachelor’s in Economics and Mathematics from Carleton College in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford in 1988.

A Q&A session with Scholz will be held on May 6 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium (or Library Mall).