Teresa A. Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, has announced that she will step down from her post after the 2017-18 academic year. Dr. Sullivan has been president of the University of Virginia since 2010. She is the first woman to hold the office.
On June 10, 2012, the University of Virginia announced that the board of visitors and Teresa A. Sullivan had “mutually agreed” that she would step down as president of the university. Published reports stated that several board members were not satisfied with the university’s pace in adapting to new technologies and the realities of online education and believed that the university was in danger of falling behind its competitors.
Students, faculty, and administrators came to Dr. Sullivan’s defense. Protests were held on campus. Sixteen days after the university announced that President Sullivan would step down, she was reinstated by the board. In 2015, her contract was extended through the summer of 2018.
In a statement to the university community, announcing she will step down in 2018, Dr. Sullivan said “we have unfinished business to do in the months ahead, and with your continued effort and sustained energy we will do that work together. I will be working at full speed for UVA until the very last day of my time in office. Part of that work will be to plan a successful leadership transition. Another part of the work – of my work – will be to express my deep gratitude to the members of this community who have made my service as UVA’s president both highly productive and immensely enjoyable.”
Before coming to the University of Virginia in 2010, Dr. Sullivan was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. From 2006 to 2010, she was executive vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Texas System.
Dr. Sullivan is a graduate of Michigan State University. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.