Dr. Judy G. Hample, chancellor of the Board of Regents of the Florida State University System, has been unanimously selected by the Board of Governors to serve as the next chancellor of the State System of Higher Education.

Hample will start in the position August 1. She will succeed James H. McCormick as chancellor of the State System, which comprises Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities, with a combined enrollment of more than 96,000 students and a more than $1 billion annual budget.

“I am absolutely delighted, and honored, to be selected the next chancellor,” Hample said after the Board chose her to serve as only the second chancellor in the System's history. “I promise you that I will work my hardest to do my very best to continue the traditions that have been started here in Pennsylvania and to build on the recognition that Chancellor McCormick has helped bring to the System.

“The Pennsylvania system has a national reputation. I am looking forward to helping to continue that tradition and to helping to build an ever greater State System of Higher Education.”

Hample pledged to work with other colleges and universities in Pennsylvania for the benefit of students. She also promised to work with business and industry in the state in collaborative efforts to help spur economic growth in the Commonwealth.

“I see tremendous opportunities here for increasing partnerships and collaborations between and among our universities, our university system, with community colleges, with private institutions, with state-related institutions, and also to build greater partnerships between our university system and business and industry in the state,” she said.

“I want to spend some time getting acquainted with the Board, the Legislature, the governor, the faculty, the students. It’s also my desire as quickly as possible to meet some of the executives and business leaders in the state. That is an area in which the State System is a very important player.”

A 14-member search committee headed by Board Human Resources Committee Chair R. Benjamin Wiley considered in excess of 200 candidates during the nearly four-month selection process. The field eventually was narrowed to three candidates who went through an extensive interview process prior to the Board making its decision.

After the Board’s decision, Chairman Charles A. Gomulka praised the chancellor-designate.

“We’ve come a long way as a System and have a long way to go. We want to take the System to the next level and I believe Judy will be the leader to take us there,” Gomulka said.

Hample was named chancellor of the Florida Board of Regents earlier this year. Previously, she served as executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for planning, budgeting and policy analysis for the Florida system.

Before coming to the Florida system, Hample was senior vice president for academic affairs and a professor of communication at the University of Toledo. She also served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana State University; dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Emporia State University, Kansas; and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Illinois University. Her career also includes time spent on the faculty of Western Illinois, the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Ohio State University.

Hample earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a master’s of communication and a doctorate in communication from Ohio State University.

McCormick will leave the State System at the end of this month, after 18 years as chancellor. Mary W. Burger, vice chancellor for academic planning, policy and assessment, will serve as interim chancellor until Hample's arrival.

The State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. More than 360,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. The regional centers are part of the Educational Resources Group, which is responsible for coordinating statewide programming.