When Dr. Phyllis Wise was selected in October 2011, to lead the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus (UI), she became the first female Asian-American chancellor to serve at a major research university. Before coming to UI, Wise,a Chinese American who immigrated with her parents to the United States, already was blazing higher education trails. She was named interim president at the University of Washington in 2010-2011, making her then, the first female Asian-American to hold that post. To UI President Michael Hogan, Wise, an active scientist, scholar, professor, and mentor, is “the full package.” Wise earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Michigan.
