Rebecca Blank Named New Chancellor
By a unanimous vote in April, the UW System Board of Regents appointed Rebecca M. Blank as UW–Madison’s next chancellor. She will begin her appointment in mid-to-late July, succeeding David Ward, who has served as interim chancellor for the past two years.
“I can’t tell you how very proud I am to be joining one of the world’s great universities,” says Blank, an economist who currently serves as acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Blank grew up in Roseville, Minnesota, and attended the University of Minnesota, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. She went on to earn a PhD in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Blank was a visiting fellow at the UW’s Department of Economics and the Institute for Research on Poverty in 1985, before moving on to teaching positions at MIT, Princeton University, Northwestern University, and the University of Michigan. At Michigan, she served as dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy from 1999–2007.
After visiting campus as a chancellor finalist this spring, Blank said she believes that it is one of the most beautiful academic settings in the country.
“But even more,” she said, “I was impressed in the two days spent there with the quality of the faculty, the quality of the staff and the students you meet, and the shared commitment to teaching and learning, research, and service.”