Change in Leadership at Asian University for Women (AUW)

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, July 8, 2011 -

- Mary J. Sansalone
appointed Vice Chancellor of AUW

Announcement from Chairman of the Board, Jack Meyer. “On behalf
of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation Board of
Directors, it is with tremendous enthusiasm and optimism that I
announce the appointment of Mary J. Sansalone as Vice Chancellor
and Chief Executive Officer for the Asian University for Women.
 Mary has an extraordinary track record as an educator and
brings vision, compassion and exemplary leadership to AUW.
 Mary was appointed Provost and Chief Academic Officer on July
1, 2010, and in just one year, she has already demonstrated the
capacity and conviction needed to make AUW an exemplary academic
institution that inspires lives and educates leaders.”

AUW is a residential liberal arts college located in Chittagong,
Bangladesh that prepares students for their roles as global
citizens by offering an intellectually challenging liberal arts
undergraduate curriculum leading to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor
of Science degrees.  Students hail from across South and
Southeast Asia, and the majority of students begin their education
at AUW in the Access Academy, an 11-month academic program that
focuses on strengthening students’ skills in English and
mathematics, broadening students’ worldview through a course in
world history and geography, encouraging creativity through the
arts, and developing self-confidence and physical fitness through
classes in karate.  A hallmark of AUW’s institutional identity
is its far-reaching Charter, approved and ratified through an Act
of the Parliament in 2006 that provides AUW with institutional
autonomy, guarantees full academic freedom and wholly enshrines the
principle of non-discrimination. AUW will graduate its first class
in 2013.

Mary Sansalone studied literature and engineering as an
undergraduate and graduated summa cum laude from the University of
Cincinnati with a degree in Civil Engineering.  She obtained a
Masters and a Ph.D. in engineering from Cornell University and a
Masters in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard University.  Appointed to the faculty of
engineering at Cornell University in 1987, she was the second woman
to earn tenure and then be promoted to full professor in the
College of Engineering.  At Cornell, Mary served as Associate
Director of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and
Vice Provost of Academic Programs at Cornell University.
Subsequently, she served as Dean of the School of Engineering and
Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mary is known for her dedication to her students. She is widely
respected for her capacity to envision, develop and execute
excellent academic programs, and to set standards that earn the
respect and admiration of all.  In 1992, the Council for
Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation
named Mary the United States Professor of the Year “for
extraordinary contributions to the lives and careers of
undergraduate students and to the intellectual welfare of our
society.”  In 1993, Cornell University named her a Weiss
Presidential Fellow “for effective, inspiring, and distinguished
teaching of undergraduate students and for outstanding
contributions to undergraduate education.”

Mary’s primary research interests focus on understanding
transient stress wave propagation in bounded solids, pattern
recognition, the development of sensing techniques for detecting
cracks and flaws in materials, and evaluation of materials and
structures.  She and her graduate students invented and
perfected a method and an instrument, called Impact-Echo, for
nondestructive evaluation of concrete and masonry structures
(highways, buildings, bridges, dams, tunnels, etc.). Impact-echo
instruments are now manufactured in North America, Asia, and Europe
and are in use worldwide for nondestructive testing of concrete and
masonry structures.  In 2002, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science named her as a Fellow “for development of
the impact-echo method and instrument for the evaluation of civil
infrastructure world-wide and for extraordinary contributions to
undergraduate education.”

AUW Founder, Kamal Ahmad, will step down as Acting Vice
Chancellor effective immediately and has also announced his
resignation as President and CEO of the Asian University for Women
Support Foundation effective September 30, 2011.  Kamal has
been a visionary founder, committed to the highest standards of
academic excellence.  He has been fully devoted to launching
the university for nearly a decade and bringing the university to
its current state of success.  Kamal has yet to announce his
next venture, but it will undoubtedly extend his commitment to
bringing positive growth and development to the region. On behalf
of the entire AUW community, it is with enormous gratitude and
respect for all that he has accomplished that we thank him and wish
him well.

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Bonnie Shnayerson (U.S./ International), +1-617-914-0517, Fax: +1-617-354-0287, Bonnie.Shnayerson at asian-university.org