Breaking: Pat Pitney to step down as University of Alaska president in May

University of Alaska President Pat Pitney announced she will resign effective in May, ending a tenure that has spanned one of the most challenging and transformational periods for the statewide system.

Watch her announcement here.

Pitney, the 17th president of the UA System, has spent more than two decades in administrative leadership roles at the university, including 17 years at UA Statewide and service as Vice Chancellor of Administration at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She became interim president on Aug. 1, 2020, after Michelle Rizk briefly filled the role following the resignation of Jim Johnsen. The Board of Regents appointed Pitney as the permanent president on Feb. 25, 2022.

Her departure means the Board of Regents will now begin the process of selecting a new president to oversee the system’s three universities and statewide operations.

Pitney’s career with UA and in Alaska public service has been long and varied. Before becoming president, she served as director of the Office of Management and Budget for the Gov. Bill Walker administration from 2014 to 2018 and, prior to that, as Director of the Division of Legislative Finance.

Pitney moved to Fairbanks in 1987 from Billings, Montana. She holds an MBA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an engineering physics degree from Murray State University in Kentucky. All three of her children graduated from UA campuses — UAF, UAA, and UAS — and she is now a grandmother of four.

Long before her career in state finance and higher education, Pitney made history on the world stage: She won a gold medal in women’s air rifle at the 1984 Olympic Summer Games as a member of the U.S. Olympic Team.