Campus News

University of Virginia president to give 25th annual McBee Lecture

Teresa Sullivan env-h
Teresa Sullivan

Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, will give the 25th annual Louise McBee Lecture Dec. 6 at 11 a.m. in the Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

Sullivan will speak on “Great Expectations: Making Administrative Careers Attractive to Faculty.” Her remarks will focus on how higher education leaders can prepare faculty members for academic-administrative careers, the obstacles to doing this and strategies for overcoming those obstacles as well as principles of effective leadership once faculty assume administrative leadership positions.

Sullivan unanimously was elected eighth president of the University of Virginia effective Aug. 1, 2010. Sullivan resigned from the university under pressure on June 10, 2012, and was reinstated a few weeks later after an outpouring of support from faculty, students and alumni.

“Dr. Sullivan is an ideal choice to address the university community on this 25th anniversary of the Louise McBee Lecture,” said Jim Hearn, professor and interim director of the Institute of Higher Education. “She is a distinguished scholar and leader and an exemplar of courage and grace under pressure—much like the woman this event honors.”

Prior to her appointment at UVA, Sullivan was the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan. She also was professor of sociology in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

From 2002 until May 2006, Sullivan was executive vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Texas System. There, she served as chief academic officer for the nine academic campuses within the University of Texas System. Her responsibilities included developing tuition-setting procedures, initiating and supporting educational and research collaborations among the various campuses and developing external collaborations.

Sullivan’s research focuses on labor force demography, with particular emphasis on economic marginality and consumer debt.

The author or co-author of six books and more than 50 scholarly articles, her most recent work explores the question of who files for bankruptcy and why. Sullivan has served as chair of the U.S. Census Advisory Committee.

She is past secretary of the American Sociological Association and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.