Dr. John C. Cavanaugh, president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola, has been selected by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors to serve as PASSHE’s next chancellor.

Dr. Cavanaugh will start in the position July 1. He will succeed Dr. Judy G. Hample as chancellor of PASSHE, which comprises Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities, with a combined enrollment of more than 110,000 students.

“I am extremely honored and privileged to be named Chancellor of PASSHE, one of the premier systems of public higher education in the country,” said Dr. Cavanaugh, after the Board chose him to serve as only the third chancellor in the State System’s nearly 25-year history. “I look forward to working closely with all of the constituencies in order to provide the finest education possible to our citizens.”

Dr. Cavanaugh was selected by the Board of Governors at the conclusion of a nationwide search. The search committee that screened the initial field of candidates was chaired by Aaron A. Walton, who also chairs the Board’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee.

“Dr. Cavanaugh is an outstanding leader with an impressive record of accomplishments throughout his career,” Mr. Walton said. “His broad range of experience makes him an excellent choice to lead the State System.”

Board of Governors Chairman Kenneth M. Jarin, who also served on the search committee, also praised the chancellor-designate.

“President Cavanaugh has all of the tools necessary to lead PASSHE to even greater levels of excellence on behalf of our students and the Commonwealth,” Mr. Jarin said. “All of us on the Board of Governors look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.”

After the search committee had narrowed the field, three candidates met with various constituency groups – including students, faculty and university trustees – that provided input into the final selection. Final interviews were held with the full Board of Governors.

“The input we received from all of the groups was extremely valuable to our final decision,” Mr. Walton said. “We believe Dr. Cavanaugh will work well with everyone on our campuses.”

Dr. Cavanaugh attended St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia before earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Delaware in 1975. He also holds both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Notre Dame, and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Research in Human Learning and the Institute of Child Development.

He was named president of the 10,500-student University of West Florida in 2002. The university has three campuses and also operates nine other locations across Florida’s Emerald Coast, as well as 15 institutes and centers and a public radio station and educational television station. He provides strategic direction for the university, especially in the areas of academic excellence, community engagement, fundraising, governmental relations and information technology. He has developed and implemented comprehensive partnerships with regional community colleges, including development of baccalaureate programs and enhanced articulation agreements. He redesigned the university’s budget and financial control systems and restructured the University Planning Council to ensure more open processes and effective planning.

Dr. Cavanaugh previously served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for three years, during which time he led all academic aspects of the comprehensive university, including budgeting, program development and staffing. He also held various positions at the University of Delaware, including vice provost for academic programs and planning and associate provost for graduate studies. While at Delaware, Dr. Cavanaugh led a broad-based effort on teaching reform, securing a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts to enhance and expand problem-based learning approaches to teaching in the social sciences and humanities. The project resulted in the enhanced use of appropriate technology in the classroom and the restructuring of support systems for teaching. The university received a Theodore Hesburgh Award Certificate for Excellence in Faculty Development to Enhance Undergraduate Teaching for the effort.

Dr. Cavanaugh began his academic career as an adjunct instructor of psychology at Indiana University at South Bend while completing work on his doctoral degree at Notre Dame. His first permanent appointment was as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Bowling Green State University in 1980. He held various appointments at Bowling Green, including head of the developmental psychology program and director of the Institute for Psychological Research and Application. He also was director for behavioral research at the Northwest Ohio Dementia and Memory Center at the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo for five years.

Dr. Hample will leave the State System in June, after nearly seven years as chancellor. She will become president of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., in July.

With more than 110,000 students, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. The 14 PASSHE universities offer degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Approximately 405,000 PASSHE 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. PASSHE also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Freeport, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.