Dive Brief:
- Cornell University has hired the University of Southern California’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, Elizabeth Garrett, as its next president.
- Garrett, who will step into the position on July 1, 2015, will be the university's first female president.
- Garrett is taking the reins from David Skorton, who will leave Cornell to be secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Dive Insight:
Garrett’s husband, Andrei Marmor, a philosophy professor at USC, will join Cornell faculty as a full professor. Garrett has worked in the provost position, the No. 2 officer at Southern Cal, since 2010. For Cornell, she will be a tenured faculty member in its law school. According to the Cornell press release announcing her hiring, her scholarly interests include legislative process, design of democratic institutions, federal budget process, and tax policy. Garrett will be the 13th president of the university in its 150-year history.