Mercile Lee, assistant vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin, has retired. Lee has been an administrator at the university for 30 years. Her responsibilities have included overseeing the Chancellor’s and Powers-Knapp Scholarship programs, which she founded in 1984 to help students from minority or disadvantaged backgrounds. Since she established the programs, more than 1,860 students have benefited from the financial aid. More than half the students who have graduated from the University of Wisconsin who have benefited from the two programs have gone on to graduate or professional school.
Lee is a graduate of Virginia Union University, a historically Black educational institution in Richmond. She earned a master’s degree at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.