Message from the Chancellor

Dear colleagues,

I write to share the news that at the conclusion of her three-year visiting appointment as Vice Chancellor of Public and Government Affairs, Theresa Mintle will be leaving the UIC community.

Theresa joined UIC at a critical time in our growth and reputational awareness.  As a life-long Chicagoan and champion of all things good in this great city, she immediately saw, as she called it, “an embarrassment of riches” in news and stories to tell about our students, faculty, staff, research, academic excellence and campus pride.

Theresa and her team embraced digital formats to reach our campus and external stakeholders by building a robust digital news presence at Today.uic.edu, expanding social media, completing the phase one transition to RED multi-sites, and redesigning the UIC homepage.  She also placed an emphasis on highlighting UIC’s strategic priorities. Furthermore, Theresa led an evolution of the UIC logo, by branding the UIC John Marshall Law School in downtown Chicago and leading the program to co-brand UI Health.

In a strategic rethinking of community relations, Theresa set UIC on a path toward greater collaboration between campus and communities we serve with an emphasis on outcomes and impact.  At the same time, she and her team continued to manage media, promote UIC experts and news, and during the COVID-19 crisis, to highlight UIC’s unique expertise and contributions.

Even though her appointment is ending in December, Theresa will remain in my office in an advisory role for a short period of time to work on some transition items. I can’t thank her enough for the hard work and dedication she has shown over the past three years. Please join me in wishing her well.

Within the next few days, we will initiate a national search for a new Vice Chancellor for Strategic Marketing and Communications. Since I anticipate that this search will extend into 2021, I also plan to announce an internal interim Vice Chancellor in the near future.

As we move forward, and with the consent of the Faculty Senate, I have decided to implement a small reorganization of the Public and Government Affairs Division. Effective December 15, the Governmental Affairs group will move to my Office while the Community Relations group will move to the Office of Diversity to initiate the process for the creation of our Office of Community Collaboration.  The remaining components of PGA–which represent the large majority of that Division–will constitute a new Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications.

Sincerely,

Michael Amiridis
Chancellor