Dear Colleagues,

I write to share with you that Dr. Danita M. Brown Young has accepted my offer to serve as our Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her appointment will begin on August 7, 2017, pending Board of Trustees approval.

Dr. Brown Young comes to us from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where she has served as Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students since 2013. Prior to that position, she worked in student affairs at Purdue University including serving as Dean of Students. Dr. Brown Young holds a B. A. in sociology from Kent State University, an M.A. in community counseling from Loyola University Chicago and earned her Ph.D. in higher education administration from Ohio University.

With nearly twenty years of experience in student affairs in higher education,
Dr. Brown Young is an accomplished ambassador for students, a strategic leader and a collaborative colleague. She understands the critical role Student Affairs must play in successfully meeting our land-grant promises of educational access and opportunity. Her previous experience at both land-grant universities and smaller institutions with diverse demographics, strengths and structures positions her to lead our student affairs programs, guide our strategic decisions around the student experience here and help us define what it means to be a land-grant university in this 21^st century.

I want to thank the search committee led by Professor Peter Mortensen and all of those who participated in the process. And, of course, we all owe our gratitude to Ken Ballom for his leadership as Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs during this transition.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Danita M. Brown Young and in welcoming her to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Jones
Chancellor