“She is not only a nationally known leader in higher education, but what I have found most remarkable about her is you can always tell that the kids who go here are her top priority — and they know it. If you look at what's been accomplished here in the last 13 years, as a native of Greensboro, it takes my breath away.”

Erskine B. Bowles, UNC system president

“I noticed that the retirement announcement emphasized that she was the most senior sitting chancellor. In my book, she is senior in more than years of service. Pat Sullivan is senior in wisdom and she's senior in the commitment to the values and ideals of the university. I consider Pat to be one of the most trustworthy academic leaders I have ever known. She's trustworthy to her very core. And she's the person I sought counsel from when I was being recruited to UNC.”

“When she would sit around the chancellors' table, you can count on the fact that she would come well-prepared to address what was on the agenda and to have a detailed understanding of the impact of those issues on UNCG. And yet, she is always loyal to the greater good of the whole university system. She places the priorities of the institution ahead of her personal interests. That has been the story of Pat Sullivan.”

Molly C. Broad, UNC system president 1997-2006,
current president of the American Council on Education

“She is a wonderful person. I just love her to death. I didn't see her a whole lot. She was very busy. But she is a wonderful lady.”

Vivian M. Bussey, former housekeeper at the Bryan House,
25 years of service for the university

“You don't always think of a chancellor as being someone who will interact with a student, but when you talk to her you're not intimidated. She's very down-to-earth. Often, when she'd introduce me to people, she'd say, ‘This is Saundretta, and we've adopted her as our own.’ And that really makes me feel good. It's really great to have that sort of closeness or connection with any administrator of a university. She will approach you and talk to you, and she shows an interest in what you're doing and what your experience is and whether you need help in any area.”

“I (heart) Chancellor Sullivan.”

Saundretta Caldwell, Class of 2008

“Pat's tenure at UNCG will long be remembered as a period of growth, expansion, and new visions. From day one, she has outworked and outpaced everyone with whom she works. We all marvel at her capacity to get things done, provide insightful leadership and still be attentive to people's needs. She is one of the most compassionate and caring people I have ever known.”

“When I think of Pat, I think of ‘grace’ — a style of leadership that cares not only about the things that are accomplished, but also about the people affected and the impact on others.”

Linda A. Carlisle '72, Students First Campaign co-chair,
UNCG Board of Trustees vice chair

“UNCG has been a vital element of the Greensboro community for a very, very long time. But for most of its history, as most colleges and universities are, it's been isolated, as large as it is. As many people as it employs, as many students as it educates, it still is apart from the rest of the community. Or it has been. Greensboro's a place with five or six colleges or universities that doesn't feel like a college town the same way a lot of other places that we know of, perhaps have gone to school at, feel like. And she has made and has insisted on making great strides in changing that, breaking down the walls of the ivory towers, breaking down walls of the boundaries of that campus to connect it more to the community, to connect it more to the business leadership, connect it more to the chamber of commerce agenda, to connect it more to businesses that want to hire interns, to the downtown area. This is the vibrancy that that a college brings to a city that it operates in. She's really opened that place up, it was extraordinarily important to her. I think UNCG has done a great job. There's still more progress to be made in that regard. Change comes very slowly to a university. She got that ball rolling and it's not going to go back in reverse. Whoever takes her place, I think part of their job description will be to continue to build a bridge off that campus and into this community. This is a very important bridge to be built and she started it and that will definitely be part of her legacy.”

“Chancellor Sullivan in many ways is really a peer among peers. She is a leader among the academic leaders in the area. I know the men who hold the same positions she has held look to her that way. She heads the largest institution in the region and she has done an excellent job in growing UNCG in establishing its position locally, as well as regionally and nationally. I know she is going to be greatly missed in this area because of the passion, diligence and work ethic she has brought to the office of the chancellor at UNCG.”

“I have had this opportunity in the last several years to reconnect with my Italian heritage. I'm a second generation Italian-American. I've written about it in my newspaper, going back and meeting relatives in southern Italy and then go back and learn about this one particular cousin canonized by Pope Benedict a couple of years ago. One of the things that just surprised the heck out of me was to get a call one day — unsolicited — one morning from Chancellor Sullivan, telling me that her, with this great Irish last name, was actually of Italian extract, that her grandmother was from southern Italy. She wanted to share some of those stories of her grandmother and the influence her grandmother had on her and how she relates to Italian side of her family which I had no idea about. We suddenly had this thing in common that was fun to keep up with. Whenever we would talk about the news or I would interview her for a story we would sort of come back to ‘what are you hearing from Italy? Are you in touch with your relatives there?’ A summer and a half ago, in mid-2006, I went to Italy for a month to do research on this book that I'm doing. This is the truth, the very first call I got at my office my first day back at work was from Chancellor Sullivan wanting to know how my trip to Italy went. I thought that was really neat.”

Justin Catanoso, executive editor of the Triad Business Journal

“I found it a pleasure to think of Pat Sullivan as my Boss Lady. She possessed a scientist's clarity of thinking about specific goals and combined it with a patience born perhaps of classroom teaching experience. She had the durable sense of humor so helpful in dealing with self-proclaimed mavericks like myself and 95 percent of the faculty. She seemed to enjoy most of her duties and endured the regrettable ones with complaisance. We keep a photo of Pat in our library shelves. She is wearing a construction-job hard hat and is examining the blueprints of a visionary future. She is smiling. This picture just about sums her up as a chancellor and as a wonderful person.”

Fred D. Chappell, author and poet, spent 40 years as a professor of English at UNCG, poet laureate of North Carolina 1997-2002

“There is a presentation of extraordinary professional competence. I know that in the heart of Pat Sullivan there is unending caring. This is someone who does honestly care about every student at UNCG or anyone else who fits into that category. She has compassion for anyone who is in need. That is what defines sister Chancellor Pat Sullivan.

“When I got to Greensboro, even before my first official day at Bennett College for Women, I contacted all of my ‘counterparts.’ I went calling on all of those folks. In the case of sister Sullivan she said, ‘I will come to you.’ From our first interaction, I would say that our relationship was magical.

“I hope that the next chancellor at UNCG doesn't even try to walk in Pat Sullivan's footsteps. She or he can only walk in their own. How fortunate the next UNCG Chancellor will be to move along a trail that Pat Sullivan has so wonderfully prepared.”

Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, president emerita of Bennett College for Women and first female president of Spelman College. She is the current chair of the The Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute founded at Bennett College for Women.

“As one of the two alumni representatives on the Chancellor Search Committee that recommended Dr. Sullivan for the chancellorship of the university, I have been an ardent fan and admirer of Pat Sullivan from the very beginning. … I especially have high regard for her ability to honor the university's heritage, its academic excellence, and its broad diversity. … Pat Sullivan was the right person at the right time to lead this great university.”

JoAnne Smart Drane '60, Board of Trustees
member for two terms 1996-2003

“I think the funniest moment that we shared was when they were getting ready to dedicate the new Baseball Stadium and she had to throw out the first pitch. I'm not sure she knows a football from a baseball, to tell you the truth — she certainly hasn't thrown one. I grew up playing street baseball with the boys so I got elected to teach her or at least help her practice. We started the sessions in her office and it was when we about took out a couple of the borrowed things from the Weatherspoon and we (realized) we were surrounded by plate glass that that didn't turn out to be a funny idea. It was hysterical at the time. The two of us were in stitches trying to practice.”

“She has always led with passion and compassion. The thing that has always amazed me is that she's a visionary leader — she can envision where she wants to go, she can lead you looking at this bigger vision but she's got such a grasp of the day-to-day detail without being a micromanager, which has always just astounded me.”

“I think the one thing that people see and have seen about the chancellor is that passion. I mean I think that's obvious if you've watch the transition this university has gone through and her dedication to UNCG. I'm not sure people always see the compassionate side of her. Gosh, I've known her for 25 years and it’s amazing … the time she spends time writing notes, the time that she spends on her own visiting.”

Dr. Cynthia M. Farris '77 MEd, '84 PhD,
associate provost for Enrollment Services for UNCG

“Chancellor Sullivan has led the university at Greensboro through an astounding period of growth, both in physical plan and in academic stature. Her tenure has been a remarkable one responding not only to the community but to the state of North Carolina. I think she has been one of North Carolina's real success stories.”

“Did I give her any advice? I just told her to be herself.”

Dr. William C. Friday, UNC system president 1956-1986

“I chaired the United Way board and she was the vice chair at the time. She is an excellent listener and analytical person. I guess the way I would put it, she listened to all sides of an issue then she shared her views, her thinking on it, and it's always very clear. I just admire her for that because it takes patience for that, especially when you have a number of volunteers who are all considered leaders. She was able to do that in a way that it never appeared that she got upset about it at all.”

“The other thing that I admired so much about her was how she valued the community, that the community was very important. And she recognized, I think, that the community was a way of helping to move UNCG ahead. Students were her first choice; every decision that she made, I think, in the community she leveraged it to see how it could help UNCG.”

“She's just a very special person. She's a person I admire very much. I admired how she always got people to work with her.”

Shirley Frye, chair of the Bryan Foundation board, former chair of the United Way while Sullivan served as vice-chair

“She understood the importance of facilities to science and the progression of science — especially at UNCG — and she acted on that. She understood the importance of a really good facility — not just beautiful, which we have — but good, for both teaching and research. If we have a really good place that's inviting, then we will attract students, not just more but better students. If we have a really fine building we're going to attract better faculty. And the impact of that will be an improvement in the program and more research. … I think the record has shown since the building opened in 2003 that’s dead on, that that has happened.”

“I remember one Saturday we met on campus and then fanned out into the neighborhoods around UNCG and she was part of that. She went door to door explaining the importance of the bond campaign. … That showed her willingness to spend time on this — not just her leadership but her hours on a weekend to gain that support. Her willingness to go out there on this particular issue as well as a thousand others she's done over the last 15 years has been really remarkable.”

“Several of us saw the need to have more community involvement, especially with industry and business leaders, in the sciences at UNCG. The chancellor when I talked with her about this saw the importance of this connection between the science programs at UNCG and people in the community. … Her support for the creation of the science advisory board … was instrumental in allowing us to attract somevery important people from the community that had businesses or governmental positions related to the science. That really helped get the conversation going and allowed the community to know we really did have strong programs here in the sciences that were otherwise unknown. That just created some buzz in the community about the sciences.”

“I think these two things that I have commented on are just indicative of her vision, her drive and adherence to the principles of leadership that get the best from people — from students, from faculty, from our supporters. That's been characteristic of her time here at UNCG. I've seen it close up on these two things as well as a few others and it's been delightful to work with her. UNCG is so much stronger because of her leadership.”

“The impact of her work here is that the university is at a higher level. We are at a higher level in everything that we are doing — in the teaching, in the research, the facilities we have now. … I think her seeing the connection between a not only more functional but a more beautiful campus and our growth has been very helpful. We're an immensely stronger institution than we were 15 years ago. Everybody understands the primacy of teaching here. Everybody understands the enormous importance of research, not only because it keeps the faculty engaged with their field and with the community and because it brings in money, but because it keeps the intellectual enterprise at a higher level. The way we're going to succeed as a university, continue to succeed as a university, is by keeping that idea to keep those intellectual fires burning as hot as you can get them, both for the faculty and the students. That piece of it, she sees. We have achieved a much higher level in terms of that intellectual fervor of the campus and that will drive us into the future. That's an important thing that she’s helped us achieve.”

Dr. Bob Gatten, former biology department head
and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

“I am honored to know Chancellor Sullivan. Pat set the standard for integrating UNCG into the everyday life of people who live and work in Greensboro and Guilford County. Under her leadership, the university has transformed itself into one of the premier institutions in the UNC system.”

“Not only is Pat Sullivan UNCG's first female chancellor, she is the longest-serving leader in the state university system. Leading a university is challenging and tiring, but always handled herself with grace.”

“Part of leading a university is developing strong relationships with our state's leaders. True to her style, she found a better way to lobby. Each year, Pat would go to Senate leader Marc Basnight's restaurant in Manteo to personally meet with him. It was always good to hear from Marc that he'd been talking to Chancellor Sullivan over dinner. And believe me, UNCG benefited from it as well.”

NC State Sen. Kay R. Hagan, Greensboro native

“She's a wonderful chancellor. She's very dedicated to the school. She'’s been very farsighted in everything she's done. We are blessed to have her … She’s been what we needed. … She has really long thoughts about the good of the school, not only now, but also way into the future. … I am so happy she is going to be here in Greensboro — she plans to live here, she and Charles. That will be good, because I think she will be a wonderful influence in the town as well as in the university. We are very blessed that she would stay here, and not go back to Texas or some of these places. Don't you think so?”

Adelaide Fortune Holderness '34, co-chair of
the Second Century Campaign

“I have been amazed at the leadership and accomplishments of Chancellor Sullivan. I'm surprised that she ever sleeps. She has taken the university to new heights of excellence and recognition, both in the community and around the state, and has moved the university over her tenure from “good” to “great.” She has accomplished so much because she has a deliberative and passionate leadership style, without being divisive.”

“You can't underestimate the contribution Chancellor Sullivan has made to Greensboro and the Triad at large. She has gotten the university heavily involved in helping with the economic development. She has also done a great job of engendering in the community a feeling of ownership for the university. I think that most people now view UNCG as one of the most important and valuable assets of the Greensboro community. And a lot of that is because Chancellor Sullivan has been so involved in the community at large, serving not only as an ambassador for the university but also as an effective civic leader.”

Randall Kaplan, Board of Trustees member, former chair of UNCG Excellence Foundation, CEO of Capsule Group, LLC

“She has given such visibility to the university beyond Greensboro. She's respected by the General Assembly … She's respected by Erskine Bowles’s office … She also has made a big impact on the business people in the area. No other chancellor has stretched the visibility of the university like that.”

“I can't say enough good things about her. I'm glad to have her as my friend.”

Martha Fowler McNair '49

“Pat Sullivan is a courageous pioneer who has tackled formidable challenges. She led the way as the first woman to head UNCG, and also as a physical scientist in a role usually held by someone in the humanities. She has been a champion of students and putting students first at UNCG. She is a highly admired friend by all who know her.”

Jaylee Montague Mead '51

“She was a storm trooper for the (Second Century) campaign. She was aggressive on the 3 billion dollar (Higher Education) bond issue ׯ she'd corner people in the grocery store and tell them to vote for it. When there's a goal in front of her, she goes for it.”

“… She came at a time of some angst and turmoil. Her style of calm, easy-going warmth just very quickly won people over.”

Dr. Richard “Skip” Moore, Board of Trustees member, President of Weaver Foundation, former UNCG vice chancellor
for University Advancement

“Pat is a person of immense energy, focus and commitment. Virtually all of her waking hours for better than a decade have been directed to advancing the interests of her university. The results are plain enough; UNCG is a bigger and better place than it was. She had, of course, fine people working with her. She didn't do it all alone. But choosing those people and getting them to work together productively is also one of her results. In short, she has done a superior job as chancellor.”

William E. Moran, UNCG chancellor 1979-1994

“Commencement is one the happiest days of the year. To be there with Chancellor Sullivan gives me a great sense of honor to be on the same podium with her. She has taken UNCG to the next level.”

“The progress of the sciences has been outstanding. Chancellor Sullivan has been instrumental in getting the Science Building and the renovation of the Petty Building funded. For her the Science Building was a labor of love. She really put her heart and soul into it.”

“Chancellor Sullivan has taken UNCG to the next level. Her vision has been a powerful motivation for the faculty and the General Administration.”

Dr. Terry Nile, current professor UNCG Department of Chemistry, Faculty Marshall who bears the university's mace at commencement

“She's a very careful listener. She solicits the advice and input of her executive staff, and she listens very carefully. I've seen her change her mind based on the information she receives from her staff. With that said, she's decisive. When she makes her mind up, she's confident about her decisions.”

“For me the most important characteristics one looks for in a boss are honesty and integrity. She is very honest and operates with great integrity. I can work for anybody who has those two qualities. There's no hidden agenda. We occasionally disagree and that's just fine, because I know exactly where she's coming from.”

“I think the thing that's been reinforced to me is her love and her passion for this place. It is not artificial. It is from her heart. She just loves the students and the faculty and the staff and the alumni.”

“To me the most impressive thing she's been able to do is she has transformed the university into a major research university while not sacrificing the institution's rich heritage as a student-centered university. And that's a very difficult thing to do. Often universities that transition into higher-level research universities lose sight of students. She's been able to accomplish that transition in a masterful fashion.

She's also transformed the university physically through her work with the bond referendum and all the resources that she's been able to bring to campus. One needs only walk across this campus to see a remarkable physical transformation. Those are probably, in my view, her two greatest legacies.”

Dr. David H. Perrin, UNCG provost 2007-present, dean of the School of Health and Human Performance 2001-07

“Let's put it this way — she is liked by all. She has made everyone feel there is a need for them. That they are important and that they helped bring about the things that make the university click.”

“She's special, she's great, she's done wonders, she's really magnificent.”

Sally Self, UNCG friend and supporter

“I had the privilege of working closely with Pat Sullivan for twelve years as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. I have great respect for her as a leader, admire her determination to succeed at whatever she does, and most of all value her friendship. Our working relationship was wonderful and grew stronger each year we worked together.”

“Pat Sullivan is a very special person who inspires those she works with to set high expectations and reach for their dreams. She is a motivator and a facilitator; a very caring, thoughtful and intelligent human being. These characteristics, along with her love of and passion for the university, its faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends, have helped her to be a great chancellor. No one has worked harder than Pat to promote the university's agenda. The university community should be very proud of the many accomplishments that have occurred during her tenure as chancellor. I believe the significance of her chancellorship cannot be overstated. She used her time and talents to move the university on a trajectory towards greatness.”

Dr. A. Edward Uprichard, UNCG provost 1996-2007