MADISON, Wis. – University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross has named Sheryl L. Van Gruensven as the interim chancellor of UW-Green Bay. Van Gruensven is the institution’s vice chancellor for business and finance and has served in numerous roles at UW-Green Bay.
“Sheryl is a well-regarded administrator and budget and finance specialist,” Cross said. “She has my full confidence to lead UW-Green Bay in the coming months.”
Prior to being named vice chancellor for business and finance in 2016, Van Gruensven had served in that role as an interim. She was UW-Green Bay’s director of human resources starting in 2005. She joined the institution in 2004.
The vice chancellor for business and finance is the institution’s lead administrator for budgeting, accounting, and fiscal control. The position oversees about 175 employees and a range of business operations and services, including budget, information technology, buildings and grounds, facilities planning, financial services, purchasing, risk management, human resources, and university police.
Van Gruensven has led UW-Green Bay’s efforts to create a new incentive-based budget model, eliminate a $3-million structural deficit while investing in key areas that have resulted in a fourth straight year of enrollment growth, and incorporate a new budgeting system and new services at the two-year campuses.
Van Gruensven will replace Gary L. Miller effective Oct. 1. Miller is stepping down to become president of the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio.
The membership of the Search and Screen Committee and the Special Regent Committee will be named soon.
Van Gruensven, who will not be a candidate for the permanent position, is well-regarded in the Green Bay community, on campus, and among the institution’s Council of Trustees. She is co-founder and co-leader of the Women’s Leadership group at UW-Green Bay and a board member of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes Council.
The University of Wisconsin System serves more than 170,000 students. Awarding nearly 37,000 degrees annually, the UW System is Wisconsin’s talent pipeline, putting graduates in position to increase their earning power, contribute to their communities, and make Wisconsin a better place to live. More than 80 percent of in-state UW System graduates stay in Wisconsin five years after earning a degree. The UW System provides a 23:1 return on state investment. UW System institutions also contribute to the richness of Wisconsin’s culture and economy with groundbreaking research, new companies and patents, and boundless creative intellectual energy.