The University has named Donna M. Randall, an administrator at the University of Memphis, as its new provost. Randall, whose appointment was approved May 5 by the University’s board of regents, will assume her new post on July 24.

Currently interim senior vice provost and a professor of management at the University of Memphis, Randall said she is impressed by the "quality of the faculty and the outstanding leadership" at the University of Hartford. She sees "a wealth of opportunities and choices ahead" and looks forward to "helping the University realize its potential in the coming years."

University President Walter Harrison noted that Randall was clearly the first choice of the search committee. "I think it is fair to say that she took the campus by storm during her visit," he said. "She will bring a high level of scholarship, commitment, and energy to the position."

Prior to being named the interim senior vice provost, Randall was dean of the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis. She has been an active scholar throughout her career, focusing in four areas: business ethics and malfeasance, women in toxic work environments, organizational commitment and work motivation, and international values and ethics. Her research has received recognition at the national Academy of Management Meetings. She has been actively involved in the Memphis community, serving on several boards and working on economic development initiatives.

Randall was selected as the UofH chief academic officer following a national search process that saw four finalists visit the campus in early April. Thirteen candidates had been interviewed by the members of the University’s search committee in mid-February, after the committee had reviewed résumés from more than 50 applicants.

She will succeed Elizabeth S. Ivey, who is retiring after five years as UofH provost and after more than four decades in higher education. Ivey’s numerous accomplishments include leading the development of the University’s Strategic Plan, spearheading an academic administrative reorganization of the University’s nine schools and colleges, and helping the University control costs by implementing a comprehensive program review process.

Randall earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Drake University and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from Washington State University. She also earned a master’s in business administration from Washington State University. She was a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow from 1981 to 1982 at WSU. During the summers of 1978 and 1979, Randall was a research assistant for the National Center on White-Collar Crime, Battelle Law and Justice Center, in Seattle.

Her husband, Paul Hagner, and her daughter, Kate, who will enter seventh grade in the fall, will join Randall in Hartford. Hagner is currently chair of the political science department at the University of Memphis and holds a National Learning Infrastructure Initiative Fellowship dealing with faculty engagement and support in new learning technologies.