Lynn Pasquerella began her duties as the University of Hartford’s chief academic officer on May 30, 2008. The provost oversees all academic-related functions, including undergraduate and graduate programs, faculty, information technology, and libraries.
In announcing Pasquerella’s appointment as provost, University of Hartford President Walter Harrison said “In Lynn Pasquerella, I believe we have found absolutely the right person to lead the academic enterprise of the University at this point in our history. She brings superb credentials as a scholar and teacher, a first rate intellect and a finely honed sense of values, great administrative experience, leadership on the national level in graduate studies, and a demonstrated record of success in attracting and maintaining research support and funding.”
Prior to the University of Hartford, Pasquerella most recently served as vice provost and dean of the graduate school at the University of Rhode Island. She supported the president and provost in the management of all academic programs and services, including academic enrollment, general education, instructional development, the Honors Program, summer sessions, academic regulations and policies, and outcomes assessment. A professor of philosophy who specializes in medical ethics, her previous academic career was spent at the University of Rhode Island, where she rose through the professorial ranks, became associate dean and later interim graduate dean before becoming dean and vice provost.
At the University of Rhode Island, Pasquerella also served as chair of the Institutional Review Board and Council for Research. She is a Fellow in the John Hazen White Sr. Center for Ethics and Public Service and was a professor of medical ethics for two years, from 1993–95, in the Brown University Medical School’s Affinity Group Program. She is a skilled facilitator who has conducted numerous workshops and community conversations on ethics and public administration, critical thinking, instructional development, multiculturalism, and medical and legal ethics.
A magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Mount Holyoke College (AB, 1980) and Brown University (PhD, 1985), Pasquerella is a recipient of the University of Rhode Island’s Teaching Excellence Award. She has published extensively in the areas of medical ethics, theoretical and applied ethics, metaphysics, public policy, and the philosophy of law.
In 1998, Pasquerella was honored by Change Magazine and the American Association of Higher Education as one of the nation’s “Young Leaders of the Academy.” Her leadership includes service on several departmental, college, and university committees, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation teams, membership on Day Kimball Hospital’s ethics committee and chair of its Institutional Review Board, membership on the Rhode Island Health Department’s Institutional Review Board and on the advisory board for the Women’s Adult Correctional Facility in Rhode Island.
She has received funding at the national level through the U.S. Department of Energy to work on ethical issues related to the Human Genome Project. She has also received research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Hewlett Foundation, the American Bar Association, the Council of Graduate Schools, and the Office of Research Integrity. She is currently the principal investigator on a $3.5 million NSF ADVANCE grant to promote the careers of women in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines and on a $750,000 NSF–Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate grant to encourage recruitment of underrepresented groups into the professorate in STEM fields.
Pasquerella and her husband, John Kuchle, who is a biologist and photographer, live in Woodstock, Conn., with their 17-year-old twins, Pierce and Spencer.
Pasquerella fills the position that was formerly held by Donna Randall, who left the University of Hartford in July 2007 after seven years as provost to become president of Albion College in Michigan.