The fourth finalist in the University of Arizona provost search is currently interim president at the University of Vermont, an appointment sheβs held since Suresh Garimella left the school for Tucson.
Patricia A. Prelock has been serving as interim president at UVM since Oct. 1, when Garimella started his role as the UAβs 23rd president.
Prelock has been at UVM for 28 years. Prior to taking on the role of interim president, she served as provost and senior vice president at the school since 2019, the year Garimella took on the role there of university president.
Prelock is set to visit the UA campus Monday, March 31, for interviews and an open forum with faculty, students and staff. The public forum will begin at 9 a.m. at the UAβs John P. Schaefer Center For Creative Photography, 1030 North Olive Road.
The first three finalists in the universityβs provost search β Eric Barker, Jenna Rickus and William Bernhard β have each had similar visits to the UA campus over the past two weeks. Among the topics they each were asked about: How they will handle DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility) matters in the current political climate; issues about law enforcement situations on campus; and enhancing student success.
Since the Trump administrationβs federal orders on research funding and DEIA, the UA has deleted the words βdiversity and inclusionβ from its widely-used Native land acknowledgement statement and took down two of its DEIA-related websites in February β both decisions which have been protested by the UA community.
Moreover, two of the three finalists who have already been to campus are from Purdue University, another institution where Garimella served as a professor and administrator before moving on to UVM. However, this isnβt the first where a senior administrator position has been filled with a candidate Garimella has previously worked with at his former institutions.
TomΓ‘s DΓaz de la Rubia, the UAβs senior vice president for research and innovation, worked at Purdue from 2015-19 in various roles. Similarly, Richard Cate, UVMβs vice president for finance and administration, was appointed by Garimella in January as the UAβs new special advisor on finances and budgets.
Prelock is a recognized expert in the nature and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), according to her UVM profile. She has a bachelorβs degree in speech pathology and audiology and a masterβs degree in speech pathology from Kent State University. Her doctorate in speech-language pathology is from the University of Pittsburgh.
Prelock has held numerous positions at UVM over the years. Those include: professor of communication sciences and disorders; professor of pediatrics; chair of the department of communication sciences; training director of a College of Medicine program; and most recently, dean of the nursing college.
Prelock has also served as president for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and is a National Academies of Practice fellow in speech-language pathology, Vermont Business Magazine reported. She has been described as an βan unwavering champion of student success, developing and promoting academic success goals to track progress across a wide variety of areas.β
She was awarded nearly $25 million dollars in university, state and federal funding as a primary investigator or co-primary investigator to develop innovations in interdisciplinary training supporting children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families, to facilitate training in speech-language pathology, and to support her intervention work in ASD, according to the UVM website.
Prelock has received numerous honors. Those include: Meritorious Poster Submission in the American Speech-Language Hearing Association in 2024, 2020 and 2016; the Jackie M. Gribbons Leadership Award from the Vermont Women in Higher Education in 2018; a visiting scholar recognition by the Prince Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand, in 2019; and a Fellow of the National Academies of Practice in speech-language pathology in 2018.
