The University of San Francisco in the United States has appointed Professor Julia Oparah as its provost as well as the vice president of academic aff
The University of San Francisco in the United States has appointed Professor Julia Oparah as its provost as well as the vice president of academic affairs, USF President, Paul Fitzgerald announced on Thursday.
Oparah, the current provost and dean of the faculty of Ethnic Studies at Mills College, will commence duty on July 12. She has an origin from the South-eastern part of Nigeria.
She had served as a member of the faculty for almost 20 years before being named provost and dean of the faculty in 2017.
According to Fitzgerald, “Our community has identified a leader in higher education with extraordinary scholarly, administrative, and service credentials to lead USF as provost.”
Fitzgerald added that he was delighted to welcome Oparah and her family to USF and that “he looked forward to working with her as a partner in mission while continuing to build on the planning and implementation that had taken place across the campus during this challenging year of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Also speaking, the outgoing Interim Provost of USF who chaired the search committee, Tyrone Cannon, said Mrs Oparah “rose to the top of a deep and distinguished pool of candidates.”
“In both her scholarship and administrative decisions, she has exhibited a deep commitment to collaboration and partnership, gender and racial equity, global social justice, and the transformative power of education,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mrs Oparah expressed delight over her new appointment as the next provost of the USF community.
She said, “I have long admired USF’s commitment to equity and social justice, and consider USF’s distinctive Jesuit educational principles, particularly cura personalis, care of the whole person as central to what USF does so well in educating students who will, as the university promises, ‘change the world from here’.”
Aside from her role as a professor and provost dean of the faculty, she also oversees the Art Museum, the Olin Library, Mills College Children School, Office of Institutional Research, and the Office of Learning, Advising, and Balance.
