By DI Staff
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Former University of Iowa President Mary Sue Coleman is set to lead the Association of American Universities.

Coleman, who led the UI from 1995 to 2002, will take over the the group in June 2016. She also served as president of the University of Michigan from 2002 to 2014.

Coleman will succeed former UI President Hunter R. Rawlings III, who will retire after leading the association since 2011.

“Hunter Rawlings has done an exceptional job as president in advancing our collective impact as research institutions,” Coleman said in a press release. “I am eager to continue the work of elevating the American research university as essential to our nation’s prosperity, security, and well-being.”

Rawlings also preceded Coleman as president of the UI. He led the campus from 1988 to 1995.

“I am thrilled that I will be leaving [the association] in the capable hands of Mary Sue Coleman,” Rawlings said in the release. “She has 20 years’ experience leading two wonderful [association] universities. But more than that, she has demonstrated courage and national leadership on some of the most important issues facing U.S. higher education, from sustaining diversity in the classroom to making research universities an even greater force for educational and economic progress.”

In the release, association Board Chairwoman Amy Gutmann, who also serves as University of Pennsylvania president, called Coleman “the ideal person to lead the [association].”

“During her tenure at both Iowa and the University of Michigan, Mary Sue was universally regarded as one of the very best presidents in the country,” Gutmann said. “In her strong and sustained university leadership, she has demonstrated the essential role of higher education in the lives of individuals and our society and world. She also knows [the association] well, having served previously as board head.

“I cannot imagine anyone better suited than Mary Sue to advance the research agenda that is at the center of [the association’s] mission, and that is also absolutely critical to the future of our nation,” she said.

Coleman, who has been noted nationally as an exceptional fundraiser, has a biochemistry background.

She has also sat on other boards, including those of Johnson & Johnson, the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, the Kavil Foundation, the University of Denver trustees, and the Meredith Corp. media conglomerate.