Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Garnett Stokes has accepted the position of president at the University of New Mexico and will begin March 1, 2018, Chancellor Alexander Cartwright said in an email sent out Thursday morning.
Stokes was appointed as provost in December 2014 and began the job in February 2015.
“I have been privileged to serve Mizzou for nearly three years as provost and executive vice chancellor,” Stokes said in an MU News Bureau release.
Stokes will be UNM’s 22nd president, according to the release. Before she begins in March, she said she still has “much to accomplish” at MU.
In the coming weeks, Cartwright will begin looking into an interim position for Stoke’s successor as provost, said Liz McCune, MU News Bureau associate director. Simultaneously, the university will launch a national search for a permanent replacement.
Members of the search team have yet to be identified, McCune said.
Cartwright said in the email that he will begin working with faculty and administrative leaders to search for an interim provost.
He also said Stokes is a “smart, capable leader” who has always been committed to student success and will serve well at UNM.
“Although I am delighted for her personally, I will miss the opportunity to continue to work with Dr. Stokes so closely,” Cartwright said in the email.
The search for a president lasted 10 months with a 22-member committee, according to a statement released by UNM. The committee was chaired by UNM Board of Regents’ President Rob Doughty and included faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Stokes was selected after three weeks of public engagement at UNM and meetings with administrators and the board, according to the release from UNM. After the board compiled feedback from campus community members, the members unanimously selected Stokes on Oct. 30.
Stokes accepted a five-year contract with a salary of $400,000.
“Dr. Stokes greatly impressed the campus community, as reflected in the resounding support the Board received for her selection,” Doughty said in UNM’s statement. “She was hands down the consensus candidate. I am confident that with her passion for higher education, commitment to both student and faculty success, and experience in developing strong leadership teams, that she is the perfect fit to be president of UNM.”
In Stokes’ time at MU, she has helped to establish the university’s Office for Civil Rights & Title IX and led a complex budgeting process after cuts to the university, Cartwright said in his email.
She has hired six deans and three interim deans since she began work at MU, according to the Office of the Provost website. Stokes also appointed the vice provost for enrollment management, Pelema Morrice, in August 2016.
_Edited by Sarah Hallam | shallam@themaneater.com_
