IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa’s governing board on Friday picked the University of Illinois System’s No. 2 official to be the Iowa City school’s next president, opting for an experienced academic leader to succeed a president with a business background.
The Iowa Board of Regents appointed Barbara Wilson to succeed Bruce Harreld, who is retiring after leading the campus since 2015, after interviewing four finalists in closed session.
Since 2016, Wilson has served as the executive vice president of the University of Illinois System, which includes 90,000 students and 6,000 faculty members on three campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. Previously, she served as the interim chancellor at the flagship Urbana-Champaign campus in 2015 and 2016.
The board said that Wilson’s initial contract would begin July 15 and run through June 30, 2026. She’ll be paid an annual salary of $600,000, and earn up to $400,000 annually in deferred compensation.
Wilson said she is excited to get to work.
“I’m ready to roll up my sleeves,” she said. “We’re going to make the University of Iowa as good as it can be and even better.”
The other finalists were University of Iowa education dean Daniel Clay, Penn State law and international affairs dean Hari Osofsky and George State University provost Wendy Hensel. The four had been recommended to the regents by a campus search committee that interviewed 12 semifinalists out of an initial pool of 79 initial applicants.
