WesternU names Sylvia Manning as Interim President
The Board of Trustees of Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Sylvia Manning as the Interim President of the University, effective July 1, 2021.
Dr. Manning has an extensive professional record of outstanding leadership in higher education, including as Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) from 1999-2007. Particularly noteworthy for her leadership at WesternU is that the University of Illinois’ health sciences were all at UIC and its regional campuses. These programs included Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing, Public Health, and Allied Health Science. Prior to becoming Chancellor, Dr. Manning served the University of Illinois as Vice President for Academic Affairs from 1994-99. From 2008 to 2014, she headed the largest regional accreditation commission in the US, the Higher Learning Commission, accrediting over 1000 institutions in seventeen states. From August 2015 to January 2016, Dr. Manning served as the Interim President of Shepherd University. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science until this month, stepping down to join WesternU.
“I am deeply honored at the opportunity to work for the good of Western University of Health Sciences. The University’s fundamental commitment to align science and medicine with empathy, integrity, and service draws me to it during this critical transition period in its history” said Dr. Manning. “Support for the faculty, staff, and administration of the University to continue providing high-quality education to its students will be my guiding purpose for this interim appointment.”
Judge Consuelo Callahan, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and member of the Board committee selecting Dr. Manning, expressed the Board’s pleasure in identifying an individual with the depth of experience and skills that so aptly meets WesternU’s current administrative imperatives. “Dr. Manning’s professional experience makes her uniquely qualified to serve our university at this time.”
Dr. Manning began her career in higher education as an assistant professor of English at California State University Hayward, and she subsequently served as Executive Vice Provost and Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Her B.A. is from McGill University; both her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are from Yale University.
The appointment of Dr. Manning to the interim role of president at WesternU has been made under the auspices of the Registry for College and University Presidents, which facilitates interim appointments for senior higher education leaders. The search for the regularly appointed President of Western University of Health Sciences is ongoing, utilizing the search firm services of Witt Kieffer with a targeted appointment by January 1, 2022.