Dear Rice Community,
I am writing to announce that Dr. Amy Dittmar, a distinguished scholar with an extensive background in economics, finance and university administration has been named the new provost of Rice University.
Amy currently serves as senior vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs and professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan, which is consistently ranked among the top three public universities in the nation with more than 50,000 students, a $17 billion endowment, an annual budget of $11 billion and research expenditures exceeding $1.5 billion. In her current position, she has overseen policy decisions and implemented a wide range of strategic, academic and budgetary areas of the university. During her tenure at the University of Michigan, Amy has held a series of top-level administrative roles at the university, including acting provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs.
While in the provost office, Dittmar was instrumental in establishing the Go Blue Guarantee in 2017, one of the first guarantees of free tuition for lower-income students at a public institution. She also planned and led the development of a new classroom building centered around enhancing engaged learning, and she was one of the leaders of a shift to a more holistic approach in the university’s support for student mental health and well-being. She also played a key role in the university’s decision-making process during the COVID-19 pandemic, including serving as the academic representative on the COVID health response committee and maintaining a balanced budget that prioritized people’s needs throughout the crisis.
Dittmar earned her B.S. in finance and business economics from Indiana University and Ph.D. in finance from the University of North Carolina. She is a scholar of corporate finance, governance and gender economics. Her research centers around studying the complex interactions between ownership, governance, individual preferences and financial structure in public and private organizations to understand the role of incentives in decision making and performance.
Amy’s appointment comes after a nationwide search was launched in January by Isaacson, Miller, one of the country’s leading executive search firms. At Rice, the effort was spearheaded by an 11-member committee selected from faculty, staff and trustees led by Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Rice engineering professor and co-director of the Rice 360° Institute for Global Health.
I believe Rice will benefit from Amy’s deep leadership experience, distinguished academic record and strategic mindset. I look forward to working with her to continue Rice’s long legacy of success and elevate the university’s stature both nationally and around the globe.
Please help me give Amy a warm welcome when she assumes her new role on Aug. 1. To learn more about Rice’s new provost, read a story about Amy in Rice News.
Respectfully,
Reginald DesRoches, Howard Hughes Provost