Dear Campus Community —

As one of the co-chairs of the recently completed University of Iowa Presidential Search process, I would like to publicly thank the 21-member search committee for its tireless work these past eight months to identify four extremely high-quality candidates to bring to campus. The committee, consisting of faculty, students, staff, and two members of the state Board of Regents, worked collaboratively throughout the entire process.

The committee received tremendous support from AGB Search and many campus partners in human resources, information technology, the president’s office, strategic communications, as well as various members of the regents’ office. On April 30, the regents unanimously selected Dr. Barbara J. Wilson as the 22nd President of the UI.

I would especially like to thank my co-chair Sandra Daack-Hirsch. Sandy worked diligently to assure the search process followed the Presidential Search Best Practices Document, which she painstakingly co-authored after the sanctions imposed by the American Association of University Professors following the previous presidential search.

The effort that Sandy dedicated to this search process led to an impeccable level of transparency, integrity, and open communication. Her leadership through the entire process helped to bring the search to a very successful conclusion. The entire campus community owes a tremendous amount of thanks to the search committee, especially Sandy Daack-Hirsch. I am very proud to have worked with the entire committee on this search and look forward to the leadership of our new UI President, Dr. Barbara J. Wilson.

Sincerely,

John Keller, Co-chair UI Presidential Search Committee