Administrator Named Penn V.P.; Move Follows Provost's Departure

Matthew Hersh

Only two months after University Provost Amy Gutmann announced her intention to accept the president's position at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University Vice Provost for Administration Joann Mitchell said she, too, will move to Penn, assuming the position of vice president and chief of staff.

The announcement marks a return to familiar ground for Ms. Mitchell since she came to Princeton in 1993 from Penn, where she served as director of affirmative action for seven years. At Princeton, she was associate provost and affirmative action officer from 1993 to 2001, and then was appointed vice provost for administration.

While working with Prof. Gutmann in the new environment will facilitate the goals of the new Penn administration, Ms. Mitchell said the new post is also a good opportunity to achieve future career objectives.

"It was an opportunity to expand into other areas that are not currently part of my portfolio," she said. Ms. Mitchell will work on a broad range of initiatives across the University from the vantage point of the president rather than that of the provost. "It's a breadth of responsibility that would really be attractive in terms of having an impact on a university on a slightly larger scale than I'm doing here in the provost's office," she said.

While representing familiar territory, Ms. Mitchell said her return will require getting reacquainted with the environment.

"A significant number of key players [at Penn] have changed," she said. "I think it will also be a challenge because in some respects I had a role before that is quite different than the one I will have now."

One of those roles will not include teaching, said Ms. Mitchell, who holds a law degree from Vanderbilt University. "I think for right now, I'm going to be focusing on the administrative side of the operation and supporting the academic mission of the university."

At Princeton, Ms. Mitchell was a precept for visiting Prof. Jack Greenberg of Columbia University in a course for law and social policy. She also directed a thesis for politics.

Teaching at Penn is a possibility, she said, but "somewhere down the road."

In her 11 years in the Princeton community, Ms. Mitchell has established a connection that she is not completely divorcing. She will continue to serve as president of the board for McCarter Theater Center and will stand for re-election in June.

University President Shirley Tilghman said that while she was "sorry" to see Ms. Mitchell leave, she anticipates that the new administration at Penn will be successful.