WRITING CENTER - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Roberto Hernandez Center
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the Chancellor
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the Chancellor
Job Titles:
- Interim Executive Director, UWM Online Academic Affairs ( 414 ) 229 - 4793
Job Titles:
- Vice Chancellor
- Provost
- Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
- Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
In his role as provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, Andrew P. Daire serves as UWM's chief academic officer overseeing all academic operations. He is responsible for administration of all schools and colleges, enrollment management and many other centers, institutes, and units in the Division of Academic Affairs. Daire came to UWM in 2023 and is also a professor in Educational Psychology. His research interests include family stability and economic mobility and career development in STEM recruitment and retention. He previously served as dean of the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and held prior positions at the University of Houston and the University of Central Florida. He earned his doctorate in Counseling Psychology and School Psychology from Florida State University.
Andrew P. Daire is the provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, as well as a professor in Educational Psychology, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Dr. Daire brings 31 years of higher education experience to this role at UWM, including his most recent position as Dean of the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) from 2016-2023. Under his leadership, VCU's School of Education had been second only to the VCU School of Medicine in external funding supporting research, doubled enrollment, increased its U.S. News & World Report ranking to #16 for public graduate schools of education, and resolved significant fiscal challenges to the point of garnering investment funding from the institution's budget model. Prior to VCU, Dr. Daire served as the College of Education's associate dean for research at the University of Houston. He also spent 13 years at the University of Central Florida, where he co-founded the university's Marriage and Family Research Institute, among other accomplishments.
Dr. Daire is a successful researcher and scholar, having received over $16 million in external funding to support his primary research area in family stability and economic mobility and his secondary research area in career development in STEM recruitment and retention. He has more than 80 professional publications, including national and international peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and research briefs and reports.
Throughout his career, Dr. Daire has built a reputation as a decisive, data-driven, and inclusive leader. He is an advocate for research advancement and community engagement while championing inclusive excellence, student success, and workplace culture and climate.
Dr. Daire holds a B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Mental Health Counseling from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and School Psychology (APA Accredited) from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.
Andrew P. Daire, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, provides academic leadership to the University in its core work of scholarship, teaching, and learning.The provost acts as the chief executive officer of the institution in the chancellor's absence.
Job Titles:
- EQI Staff Member
- Languages Project Manager & Administrative Specialist
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, WiscAMP STEM - Inspire Program
Job Titles:
- Director, Lubar Entrepreneurship Center / Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Job Titles:
- Special Assistant to the Provost for Conflict Resolution and Chair of the Ombuds Council Academic Affairs ( 414 ) 251 - 7150
Benjamin Schneider Special Assistant to the Provost for Conflict Resolution and Chair of the Ombuds Council Academic Affairs(414) 251-7150 terrapin@uwm.edu Honors House 158
Job Titles:
- Chief Innovation and Partnership Officer
Brian Thompson is Chief Innovation and Partnership Officer and leads UWM's Office of Strategic Partnerships. He is responsible for partnerships with corporations, non-profit organizations, and other groups to enhance and uplift the academic enterprise, research accomplishments, and student experiences at UWM. In this role, he oversees key initiatives that include the Connected Systems Institute (CSI), Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute (NMDSI), Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin (FCW), and the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center (LEC). Thompson joined the UWM community in 2006 to help launch the UWM Research Foundation which he led through 2022. He also served as Director of the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center from 2016 to 2023 and is Co-PI on the Milwaukee I-Corps (Innovation Corps) program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Thompson has taught new ventures as an adjunct instructor in the Lubar College of Business and the UWM Honors College. In previous roles, Mr. Thompson led the development and launch of communications satellites, worked in corporate ventures and helped create startups in biotechnology and the entertainment industry. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from UCLA.
Job Titles:
- Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Academic Affairs ( 414 ) 251 - 7506
Job Titles:
- Special Assistant to the Office of the Chancellor
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor / Multicultural Student Success Coordinator, American Indian Student Center
Job Titles:
- Chancellor
- about Chancellor Mark a. Mone
Mark Mone has made student success, growing research and partnerships, and fostering entrepreneurship and innovation his priorities, even as he manages the unprecedented fiscal challenges facing the university. Prior to being named the university's ninth chancellor in 2014, he led UWM's executive education and business engagement initiatives, including the longest-running Executive MBA program in Wisconsin. With the superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools and president of Milwaukee Area Technical College, Mone co-founded and co-leads the M 3 Initiative, which seeks to close the achievement gap and transform the future of Milwaukee through education. He earned his doctorate in organizational behavior and organization theory from Washington State University.
Chancellor Mone strives to accept as many speaking invitations as possible. Unfortunately, he must decline some invitations because of calendar conflicts. The Office of the Chancellor attempts to accommodate requests that support the mission of the university.
In 2014, Mark Mone became the ninth chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) - the only public institution in Wisconsin with a research and access mission.
Chancellor Mone co-led the creation of the UW system-wide Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin to solve the world's water challenges. The collaborative, led by UWM, connects the 13 Universities of Wisconsin institutions through shared curricula and research.
Guided by the university's 2030 action plan, UWM's momentum is evident through financial stewardship, aligning and streamlining academic programs, increased student support through the Milwaukee Tuition Promise and visionary capital projects. Those include a state-of-the-art Chemistry Building, Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin Center, the Lubar Entrepreneurship and Welcome Center, School of Freshwater Sciences, the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex, and integrating health care profession facilities. The student, research and capital projects support was enabled by Chancellor Mone's leadership of the Made in Milwaukee, Shaping the World comprehensive campaign, doubling the previous campaign, achieving over $251 million and continuing with record fundraising years.
Chancellor Mone serves on the boards of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities' Coalition of Urban Serving Universities, Horizon League Athletic Conference, The Water Council, Milwaukee Succeeds, Milwaukee Film and BizStarts Milwaukee. He is an active member of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. Dr. Mone was named one of "100 Milwaukee-area power brokers" for 2024 by the Milwaukee Business Journal, and one of "Wisconsin's 275 most influential people" by BizTimes, a Milwaukee business news publication.
Dr. Mone is a thought leader and frequent speaker on closing the achievement gap, partnerships and the critical economic role of public research universities. He has been involved in vital national conversations about the value of a college degree.
Chancellor Mone is an avid cyclist, athlete and a gourmet cook. He is married to Dr. Sara Swanson, and they have two adult children, both graduates of public universities.
Job Titles:
- Institutional Academic Planner
Job Titles:
- Vice Chancellor for Community Empowerment and Institutional Inclusivity
As vice chancellor for Community Empowerment and Institutional Inclusivity, Chia Youyee Vang leads efforts to advance diversity and equity and foster inclusion for all campus community members. Vang served as associate vice chancellor for Global Inclusion and Engagement from 2017-2021. A professor of history, she has been on the UWM faculty since 2006. Her teaching and research interests include 20th century U.S. international history, with particular emphasis on its relation to refugee migration. Outside of academia, Vang has 10 years of experience providing program evaluation, planning and policy research consulting services. She earned her doctorate in American Studies from the University of Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Academic Affairs ( 414 ) 350 - 1937
Job Titles:
- Senior University Legal Counsel Emeritus
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- Acting Vice Chancellor for Marketing, Communications & University Relations
Deanna Alba brings 12 years of experience in professional services business-to-business marketing and 20 years of higher education marketing to the role. For the past 15 years, she has been the assistant dean for marketing and communications in UWM's College of Letters & Science (L&S), the largest academic unit on campus. Her foci in L&S were on enrollment and recruitment of freshmen and transfer students, and brand awareness for the college.
Her communication deliverables featured student- and parent-centric priorities: job outcomes, paths to graduation, student support services and the value of a UWM education. As a first-generation college student herself who attended UWM while in high school to earn early college credit, these messages hold deep personal meaning to her.
Deanna holds a bachelor's degree in economics from UW-Parkside and a master's degree in human development and social policy from Northwestern University.
Job Titles:
- Program Assistant - Confidential, Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights
Job Titles:
- Interim Director, Black Student Cultural Center
Job Titles:
- EQI Staff Member
- Grants & Students Services Manager
Job Titles:
- Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor of the Division of Community Empowerment & Institutional Inclusivity, Community Empowerment & Institutional Inclusivity
Job Titles:
- HR Business Partner, Shared Services Unit, Serving Academic Affairs
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor / Success Coach Coordinator, Roberto Hernandez Center
Job Titles:
- Senior Legal Counsel
- Senior University Legal Counsel
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chief
- Legal Counsel
- Interim Deputy Chief Legal Counsel
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin
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- Director, Equal Opportunity & Civil Rights
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- Vice Chancellor for University Advancement
Joan Nesbitt is a fifth generation Oklahoman with Native American heritage (enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation). She earned a BA in Communication from The University of Tulsa and an MA in Organizational Dynamics from The University of Oklahoma. She has more than 30 years' experience in university advancement, the last 17 at the executive level, and she has been a part of four successful comprehensive campaigns. She and her teams have been recognized multiple times for fundraising and engagement excellence by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, including two national CASE awards in 2016 and 2020 for overall fundraising. In 2020, Joan and the Advancement team at Missouri S&T closed a $300 million charitable gift, the fifth largest of all time to a public university and the largest in Missouri history.
Job Titles:
- As Chief Legal Counsel
- Chief Legal Counsel & Director of Legal Affairs
As Chief Legal Counsel, Joely Urdan is responsible for the provision of legal services to the institution and focuses her own legal practice on employment and personnel matters, administrative policies, litigation, student conduct issues, and campus safety. She also oversees UWM's Office of Compliance and Ethics. Before UWM, she spent four years at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, where she represented state agencies and state employees in state and federal litigation and argued appeals before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Wisconsin Supreme Court. She joined UWM in July 2003 and served as Legal Affairs' associate director from January 2005 until she was named interim director in October 2012 and Chief Legal Counsel in May 2014. She earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and Bachelor of Arts from UW-Madison.
Job Titles:
- Director, Office of Assessment & Institutional Research Assessment and Institutional Research ( 414 ) 251 - 6778
Job Titles:
- Associate Vice Chancellor - Enrollment Management ( 414 ) 229 - 7194
Job Titles:
- Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Job Titles:
- Finance & Operations Manager, Community Empowerment & Institutional Inclusivity
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to Vice Chancellor, Community Empowerment & Institutional Inclusivity
Job Titles:
- Director of the Electa Quinney Institute and Associate Professor of Anthropology
- Member of the Bahweting
Mark Freeland is Bear Clan and a member of the Bahweting community in Northern Michigan (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe Chippewa). He received a Master of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology and a Ph D in Religious and Theological Studies from the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver joint doctoral program. His research critically identifies the role of Indigenous worldview as an integral component of cultural and linguistic translations. His book, Aazheyaadizi: Worldview, Language and the Logics of Decolonization, provides a theoretical grounding for understanding the problematic role that religion continues to play within Indigenous communities and calls for a deeper involvement of the logics of worldview in the regeneration of Indigenous lifeways and protection of our relationships to our environment.
While receiving his Master and Doctoral degrees in Denver, he worked as a council member of the Four Winds American Indian Council, an urban community center in downtown Denver. There he participated in a range of civic, educational and ceremonial duties.
He is coming most recently from South Dakota State University where he was the Co-coordinator of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, which provided the academic component for the Wokini Initiative, a program to redistribute land grant funding to support Indigenous students.
Aside from EQI, Dr. Freeland has authored Aazheyaadizi: Worldview, Language, and the Logics of Decolonization. Aazheyaadizi rethinks decolonization by developing a theory of worldview to shed light on the issues around translating Indigenous languages in and out of colonial languages.
Job Titles:
- EQI Staff Member
- Finance
- Operations Manager
Job Titles:
- Business Affairs Director
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice Chancellor
- Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs
- Vice Chancellor of Finance
As the senior vice chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs and Chief Business Officer, Robin Van Harpen is responsible for UWM's finances and oversees a number of administrative units that keep the university running, including financial services, budget, procurement, facilities, campus planning, transportation services, safety/risk management, human resources, IT, police and legal. An attorney, she served as UWM's chief legal counsel from 2004 to 2012. Prior to joining UWM in 2001, Van Harpen worked for the Milwaukee law firm von Briesen & Roper, s.c., practicing school law. She earned her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.
Robin has served as the Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administrative Affairs since 2012. Robin started at UWM in the Office of Legal Affairs in January of 2001, serving as the Associate Director of the Office from 2002 to 2004, and as Director beginning in 2007. As the Director of the Office, Robin oversaw the work of the office and communicated frequently with UWM administration on a wide variety of issues impacting the campus.
Job Titles:
- Training & Dispute Resolution Specialist, Community Empowerment & Institutional Inclusivity
Job Titles:
- Lead of Southeast Asian American Student Center, Southeast Asian American Student Center ( SEAASC )
Job Titles:
- Program Manager, Ronald E. McNair Post - Baccalaureate Achievement Program
Job Titles:
- Chancellor
- Chief of Staff
- Chief of Staff to the Chancellor
Sue Weslow
Chief of Staff to the Chancellor
sweslow@uwm.edu
414-229-4331
Job Titles:
- Director, UWM University Centers Academic Affairs ( 414 ) 251 - 8340
Job Titles:
- Chief Innovation & Partnership Officer