U-M Expected To Make Big Announcement On Wednesday
The University of Michigan Board of Regents has called a special meeting for 1 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, where they are expected to vote on - and approve -the hiring of Santa J. Ono as U-M's next president. Ono, the current president at the University of British Columbia and the former president at the University of Cincinnati, would become the university's 15th president if confirmed.
Much of the excitement surrounding the potential hiring of Ono is due to the fact that he's considered 'forward thinking' on things like athletics and NIL. As president at the University of British Columbia, Ono built a reputation of being a active within the community - often sharing videos and photos of himself attending various events around campus.
In short, Ono appears to be a vast departure from his predecessors - and many believe that's exactly what is needed in Ann Arbor.
Here's a more in depth look at some of Ono's accomplishments, via UBC.CA:
Installed as President and Vice-Chancellor in 2016, he also serves as Chair of the U15 Group of Universities, on the Board of Directors of Universities Canada and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and as Past Chair of Research Universities of British Columbia. He is the Leader of the University Climate Change Coalition and a member of the International Advisory Board of Keio University, Terramera Strategic Advisory Board, Steering Committee of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, the Government of Canada’s Industry Advisory Ad Hoc Roundtable on COVID-19 Testing, and the Boards of Fulbright Canada and MITACS. He has served on the Boards of the American Council on Education and the Council on Competitiveness, as Chief Innovation Advisor to the Province of British Columbia, and as Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy for the Government of Canada.
Prior to his appointment as President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC, Dr. Ono served as the 28th President of the University of Cincinnati and Senior Vice-Provost and Deputy to the Provost at Emory University. He also served as Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
He was appointed by Governor John Kasich to lead Ohio’s Biopharmaceutical Task Force and to the Board of the Ohio Third Frontier – Ohio’s technology-based economic development program, when he served as President of the University of Cincinnati.
A molecular immunologist educated at the University of Chicago and McGill, Dr. Ono has taught at Johns Hopkins, Harvard University and University College London. He has advised national and regional governments on higher education and mental health. He has also advised companies such as GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Novartis on R&D, and served as Director and Chief Scientific Officer of iCo Therapeutics Inc.
Dr. Ono has served on a number of editorial boards, including Immunology, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, The Journal of Immunology and The Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.
He has been inducted as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, USA and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. In 2022, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
He holds Honorary Doctorates from Chiba University and the Vancouver School of Theology and is a recipient of the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award from the American Council on Education, the Professional Achievement Award from University of Chicago, a Grand Challenges Hero Award from UCLA and the NAAAP 100 Award from the National Association of Asian American Professionals.
