MARY SUE COLEMAN
PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Mary Sue Coleman has led the University of Michigan since being appointed its 13th president in August 2002.

As president, she has unveiled several major initiatives that will have an impact on future generations of students, the intellectual life of the campus, and society at large. These include campus initiatives that will examine student residential life, the interdisciplinary richness of the U-M, ethics in our society, and issues related to health care.

Under her leadership, the University launched “The Michigan Difference” campaign for the future of the institution and recently surpassed its goal of $2.5 billion. The campaign continues, with an emphasis on unmet needs, scholarships and fellowships for students, and endowed chairs for faculty. She also has announced a groundbreaking partnership between the University and Google, which will enable the public to search the text of the University’s 7 million volume library and will open the way to universal access and the preservation of recorded human knowledge.

President Coleman is regarded as a national spokesperson on the educational value of affirmative action and diverse perspectives in the classroom.

Her extensive leadership positions in higher education include serving on the Association of American Universities Executive Committee, the Internet2 Board of Directors, the National Collegiate Athletic Association Board of Directors, and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1997, President Coleman also is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She co-chaired a major policy study of the Institute of Medicine, examining the consequences of uninsurance, and has become a nationally recognized expert on the issue.

As a biochemist, Dr. Coleman built a distinguished research career through her research on the immune system and malignancies. She authored numerous articles on her findings and directed funded research projects supported by a variety of federal agencies. At the University, she holds the appointments of professor of biological chemistry in the Medical School and professor of chemistry in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

For 19 years she was a member of the biochemistry faculty at the University of Kentucky. Her work in the sciences led her to administrative appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of New Mexico, where she served as provost and vice president for academic affairs. From 1995-2002, Dr. Coleman was president of the University of Iowa.

President Coleman is a member of the Detroit Renaissance Board of Directors; the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan; and the Michigan Strategic Economic Investment and Commercialization Board. She is a trustee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. She serves on the boards of directors of Johnson & Johnson and the Meredith Corporation.

She earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Grinnell College and her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina. She holds honorary doctorates from Grinnell College, Luther College, the University of Kentucky, Albion College, Dartmouth College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Northeastern University, the University of Toledo, and the University of Notre Dame. She is the recipient of a distinguished alumnus award from the University of North Carolina.

President Coleman and her husband, Dr. Kenneth Coleman, a political scientist specializing in Latin America, live in the historic President’s House on the University campus. Their son, Jonathan, is a portfolio manager in Denver, Colo.