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Chancellor Sullivan — Biographical Information
Patricia A. Sullivan, 68, is a 1961 cum laude graduate of St. John’s University, and earned her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in biology from New York University. A native of Staten Island, N.Y., she is married to Dr. Charles Sullivan, an electrical and computer software engineer.
Her career began in 1961 as a teaching fellow at NYU, where she later held pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health. She spent 10 years (1970-1980) on the biology faculty at Wells College, where she chaired the Life Sciences Division and the Science and Human Values Project, and directed the Women in Science Program.
She spent eight years at Texas Woman’s University, starting as an associate professor of biology from 1979-1981. She then went to Salem College in Winston-Salem, where she was Dean of the College from 1981-1987. She returned to Texas Woman’s University in 1987 to become vice president for academic affairs. She remained at TWU until 1994, serving as TWU’s interim president 1993-1994.
Her selection for the top job at UNCG was announced on Oct. 14, 1994, by then-UNC President C.D. Spangler Jr., who said it was high time for UNCG to have a woman as chancellor – 102 years after the institution’s opening in 1892 as a normal school for the education of women.