University of Arizona's VP of research takes top job at Utah State

The University of Arizona’s vice president for research and innovation is leaving to become president of Utah State University.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell, the UA’s vice president for research and innovation since 2019, oversaw an $825 million research portfolio, which included managing the UA Tech Park — an initiative that contributes $1.7 billion to Tucson’s economy.

“With her impressive experience and achievements, we are not surprised Betsy Cantwell has been selected for the presidency at Utah State University,” UA spokesperson Pam Scott said in an email Monday. “We will begin a national search process this summer and expect to have the interim research leader named by the end of this week.”

The UA is also searching for a permanent replacement for Liesl Folks, who left her post as senior vice president and provost of the UA at the end of the school year to take a new position at UA establishing a Center for Semiconducting Manufacturing.

The Utah State Board of Higher Education announced its selection of Cantwell from a pool of three finalists Friday, six months after USU President Noelle Cockett resigned. Cockett took the helm of USU in 2017. Throughout her tenure, Cockett’s administration faced criticism and lawsuits centered on the university’s handling of on-campus sexual misconduct allegations, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

When the board appointed Cantwell to replace Cockett on Friday, Cantwell was in Logan, where USU is located, to celebrate and made the following statement, the Salt Lake Tribune reported:

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“I’m enormously grateful to the board for their faith in me,” Cantwell said. “I will do everything in my power to step into a place that has (been) made beautiful by President Cockett, and move us all forward into what is truly an incredible future for Utah State University and for the state of Utah.”

At the UA, Cantwell received an annual salary of $454,230. As president of Utah State she will receive a base salary of $581,585 per year, according to the Utah System of Higher Education. Cockett received an annual base salary of $452,016.

In Cantwell’s four years at the UA, the university’s research expenditures grew by nearly $100 million — from $687.1 million in fiscal year 2018 to $770 million in fiscal year 2021 — and consistently ranked among the top 40 research institutions in the United States.

Cantwell holds a bachelor’s degree in human behavior from the University of Chicago, a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Prior to coming to the UA, Cantwell spent many years working in high-profile laboratories. Most recently, she’d served as CEO of Arizona State University Research Enterprise, a nonprofit aimed at furthering the university’s applied research and development for Arizona State University.