Dear Pitt Community Members:
Earlier today, members of our Board of Trustees convened in a special session and enthusiastically elected Joan T.A. Gabel as the 19th chancellor and chief executive officer of the University of Pittsburgh. She joins us from the University of Minnesota System and Twin Cities campus, where she has served as president and chief executive since 2019. Chancellor-elect Gabel will be the first woman in Pitt’s 236-year history to hold our highest office.
In assessing many candidates, Chancellor-elect Gabel quickly emerged as the clear leader in a crowded field of talented applicants. She possesses the vision, drive, academic and research acumen and depth of experience necessary to lead this University as we seek to further enhance our position among the top 10 public research institutions in the nation.
She has filled her tenure at the University of Minnesota System with many accomplishments. Among them: She established and enacted a strategic plan focused on student success, innovation, service, equity and fiscal stewardship; spearheaded a $4 billion capital campaign, which exceed its goal by 10%; and forged a partnership between the University, Mayo Clinic and Google aimed at developing novel platforms to establish new models for higher education.
Chancellor-elect Gabel has deep experience in higher education academics and leadership. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota System, she served as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost for the University of South Carolina and dean of the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business at the University of Missouri.
Chancellor-elect Gabel began her teaching career at Georgia State University as an assistant professor of legal studies before being named interim director of the university’s Institute of International Business. Next, she joined Florida State University, where she was the DeSantis Professor of Legal Studies; chair of the Department of Risk Management and Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies; and director of international relations within the College of Business.
Chancellor-elect Gabel has earned numerous research, service and teaching awards, including recognition as a Fulbright Scholar. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law.
Chancellor-elect Gabel connected with Pitt thanks to the exhaustive efforts of a 26-person chancellor search committee, led by committee chair Trustee Eva Tansky Blum and vice chair Anantha Shekhar, who serves as the University’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine. The committee—which contained Pitt Trustees, students, faculty, staff and alumni—worked for more than seven months, vetting highly qualified candidates from across the nation and overseas.
We would not have arrived at this successful outcome without the contributions of Pitt students, faculty and staff. Thousands of Pitt community members contributed to the search, sharing their input via online surveys and in-person forums. These perspectives—your perspectives—provided the search committee with vital direction and clarity as its efforts evolved.
While we are excited by today’s news, we are mindful of the exceptional role that Chancellor Patrick Gallagher has played in securing the University’s current, esteemed standing in the higher education community. In a period marked by historic headwinds—including a pandemic, economic upheaval, civic unrest and a simmering uncertainty about the future of higher education in the United States—the University of Pittsburgh has continued to grow and thrive.
Case in point: This year, we recorded the largest number of first-year undergraduate applications in our university’s long history. In addition, our current first-year class arrived on campus with the highest average weighted GPA (4.16) of any incoming first-year class. And, in 2018, Pitt joined an elite cohort of U.S. institutions that exceeded the $1 billion mark in annual research and development expenditures—a distinction that we have maintained for four straight years.
These accomplishments are a testament to Chancellor Gallagher’s leadership and his ability to work in close concert with the entirety of the Pitt community—students, faculty, staff and alumni—over the past nine years. Without question, his robust legacy leaves the University well positioned for more growth and success.
Like you, I am excited to get to know Chancellor-elect Gabel and look forward to her joining in July. Fortunately, she will have many opportunities to connect with students, faculty and staff and continue the important work of advancing Pitt’s mission of creating and leveraging knowledge for society’s gain.
Please join me in welcoming Chancellor-elect Gabel and her family to Pittsburgh and introducing her to the many traditions and experiences that make our university—and our university community—so exceptional.
Hail to Pitt!
Doug Browning (A&S ’72)
Chair, Board of Trustees