Pitt provost leaving to become Portland State University president
Ann E. Cudd, the University of Pittsburgh’s provost and senior vice chancellor, will become the 11th president of Portland State University.
She won’t don the Oregon university’s green and white just yet, though: Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher in a letter Friday said that Ms. Cudd, “a successful leader and bright talent,” will continue as provostuntil midsummer.
The Portland State board, in announcing her appointment and Aug.1 start date, echoed that praise.
“We are highly confident that Dr. Cudd is the right leader to take Portland State into the future and continue our mission to Let Knowledge Serve the City,” Greg Hinckley, the board of trustees chair, and Benjamin Berry, a trustee and chair of the presidential search committee, said ina joint statement Friday.
The university noted that she is the second woman president in the school’s 76-year history.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this university,” Ms. Cudd said, adding that Portland State’s mission “to open the doors of opportunity for students from all backgrounds aligns exactly with mycore values and with the kind of work that I have done at the University of Pittsburgh. I am extremely excited to take on this role leading a university located in the middle of a beautiful, progressive citythat has captured my heart.”
She succeeds Stephen Percy, who, after four years in the role — one as interim — is retiring.
Ms. Cudd landed as Pitt provost in the fall of 2018, following a stint as dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. But she was no stranger to Oakland: Her master’s degrees in economics and philosophy (1986) and doctoral degree in philosophy(1988) are bothfrom Pitt.
“[D]espite the inevitable feeling of loss that accompanies such a move, Portland’s recruitment and selection of Ann — a successful leader and bright talent — is hardly unexpected,” Mr. Gallagher said, ticking off her accomplishments, including leading hiring efforts.