Two Women Among the Four Finalists for Provost at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks

The flagship campus of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks has announced a field of four candidates who will vie to become the university’s next provost. Each candidate will visit campus during April for interviews and public forums. Two of the four finalists are women.

Betty Lou Leaver served as provost at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California from 2013 to 2017. Earlier, she was associate provost for continuing education. The institute provides foreign language training for the U.S. Defense Department and military personnel. Dr. Leaver holds a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and a master’s degree in comparative literature from Pennsylvania State University. She earned a Ph.D. in applied linguistics and second language acquisition from the Pushkin Institute in Moscow.

Anupma Prakash is a professor of geophysics at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. She also serves as interim dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics at the university. Professor Prakash is also the director of the Alaska Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Professor Prakash holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from Lucknow University in India. She earned a Ph.D. in earth sciences from the India Institute of Technology.