Nancy Brickhouse, vice president and provost of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has announced her intent to to step down as the university’s chief academic officer on July 31. She will return to the Baylor faculty following a one-year sabbatical.
Dr. Brickhouse began her tenure as Baylor’s provost on May 1, 2019. Under her leadership, the university has significantly increased its research expenditures, expanded its graduate and professional education programs, and improved its student graduation rate. Dr. Brickhouse also oversaw two university-wide strategic plans.
Before her tenure at Baylor, Dr. Brickhouse was provost of Saint Louis University in Missouri. Prior to that role, she spent 27 years in various academic and administrative positions at the University of Delaware. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Baylor University and both a master’s degree in chemistry and doctorate in science education from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
“I’ve known since my appointment in 2019 that I would make Baylor my final stop,” Dr. Brickhouse wrote in a letter to the Baylor community. “I also knew that I would want my final years to be engaged in the work that attracted me to the professoriate at the beginning: teaching and writing. Like my return to Baylor as an ‘alumna Provost,’ there is something beautiful and meaningful about coming full circle.”