Dear Vanderbilt Community,
After a comprehensive search informed by our community, I am proud to announce that the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust has named the university’s ninth chancellor: Daniel Diermeier.
Daniel is a distinguished and pathbreaking leader, scholar and teacher who currently serves as provost at the University of Chicago and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has the vision, leadership experience and deep commitment to trans-institutional research and teaching that we were seeking in our ninth chancellor. He embodies Vanderbilt’s values and has a keen understanding of what makes Vanderbilt special—academic excellence made possible by a highly collaborative community.
Daniel also shares Vanderbilt’s commitment to making an elite education accessible to all qualified students, regardless of their background or ability to pay, a commitment informed by his own experiences as a first-generation college student. His intellectual and strategic acumen, as well as his enthusiasm for our mission, will make him an outstanding chancellor.
I encourage you to learn more about Daniel on the Chancellor Transition website.
His tenure as Vanderbilt’s chancellor will begin on July 1. He is meeting with many members of our community today and will be on campus frequently this winter and spring to learn and listen.
I invite you to meet the incoming chancellor today during a reception at 4 p.m. in the Student Life Center Ballroom. You will also have the chance to meet him again in the spring during his visits to campus, including at a campuswide celebration in January.
Throughout the search process, your feedback played a critical role. I have already shared with Daniel the Report of the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee, which will guide his transition process and leadership at the university.
Interim Chancellor Susan R. Wente will continue to lead the university through June 30, and she will serve as one of Daniel’s top advisers in her ongoing role of provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. I am deeply grateful to Susan for her outstanding leadership as interim chancellor and provost during this transition.
I also want to recognize the members of the Chancellor Search Committee and the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee. The faculty, staff, students, alumni, and current and emerita members of the Board of Trust on these committees served our university with distinction.
I am grateful to each of you for your role in the process of selecting Vanderbilt’s ninth chancellor. This is an important moment in Vanderbilt history. Together with Daniel, we will continue to shape the future of the great university that connects us all.
Sincerely,
Bruce R. Evans
Chairman, Vanderbilt University Board of Trust