University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce announced Wednesday that she will leave her leadership position next year, calling it “an honor of a lifetime” to serve the institution where she has spent nearly 40 years.
Cauce is stepping down in June 2025 at the conclusion of her second five-year term. She plans to help with a smooth transition and then return to her faculty position as a professor of psychology and American ethnic studies.
“Serving as president of the UW is a joy and a privilege, including through some very tumultuous periods and transformative events that have shaped our University and our world,” Cauce said in a blog post. “I’m incredibly proud of the amazing impact that UW faculty, staff, students and alumni create throughout our community, state and world, and I’m deeply grateful to be a Husky.”
An immigrant from Cuba who was raised in Miami, Cauce first arrived at the UW in 1986 as an assistant professor of psychology. She served as provost and executive vice president before being named the UW’s 33rd president in 2015. She became the first woman, first Latina, and first openly gay person to take on the role.
Among her accomplishments, Cauce helped lead an effort to double the size of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering; helped restore and increase state support of the UW following cuts made during the Great Recession; strengthened the relationship with Washington State University and the state’s community colleges; and secured funding for the Washington College Grant.
In a recorded departure announcement (below), Cauce mentions UW students making a difference in the world, and the technology transfer that’s taking place.
“We’ve already made some real progress in developing an impact ecosystem where the research work that our faculty does, the discovery that they do, can more readily and more quickly translate into real action in our local communities and around the world,” she said.
Cauce joined the board of the Allen Institute for AI in 2020, forging an even closer connection between two of Seattle’s premier research institutions. She’s also on the board of the Washington nonprofit Tech Alliance.
In 2019, during a panel at the GeekWire Summit, Cauce discussed how to lead successful, innovative organizations.
“If you’re going to be an innovator, if you’re going to be an entrepreneur, we know that the first failure and the second and third failures are a step toward success,” Cauce said at the time. “It’s not about preparing students for their first job. It’s about preparing them for a life where they’re going to have a first, a second, a third.”
The UW Board of Regents will share details about the search for Cauce’s successor in the weeks to come.
Watch Cauce’s departure announcement:
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