The University of South Florida board of trustees voted unanimously to select Rhea Law to serve as the university’s interim president. She took office on August 2.
The University of South Florida, headquartered in Tampa, is one of the nation’s largest universities with more than 32,000 undergraduate students and more than 11,000 graduate students. Women make up 55 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Law is the former chief executive officer and chair of the board of Fowler White Boggs, a Florida law firm. She led the merger of that firm with a national firm, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney in 2014.
President Law was one of the founding members of the USF board of trustees, where she spent five years as vice chair and four years as the first and only female chair. She was a founding member of the board of directors of the USF Law Alumni Society, served as a member of the USF Research Foundation Board, and chaired the board of directors for the Health Professions Conferencing Corporation with the USF Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation.
Law is a graduate of the University of South Florida, where she majored in management. She earned a juris doctorate at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida.