President Zimmer appoints Greene as new VP for Strategic Initiatives

President Zimmer recently appointed David Greene to the newly created position of Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. Greene is currently Vice President for campus life and student services at Brown University, and his appointment at Chicago will begin Friday, Sept. 1.

“During the coming years, I anticipate a number of strategically defined initiatives that will of necessity involve multiple academic and administrative units and reflect an ambitious agenda for the University,” Zimmer wrote in a statement to University deans, officers and directors.

Zimmer, who before becoming President served as Provost at Brown, added that in the four years he worked with Greene, he “consistently saw the experience, judgment, skills and intelligence that will make him perfectly suited” to oversee these initiatives, and ensure that the University’s planning is well-coordinated and its priorities clearly defined and communicated.

At Brown, Greene oversees 13 departments and is the senior officer responsible for policies and planning that optimize the educational environment for Brown’s undergraduate, graduate and medical students. He has led planning studies that are resulting in major new and renovated campus facilities, a broad range of new student services, and a number of new programs that enhance the academic dimensions of residential and campus life.

Greene began his career at Brown as President Ruth Simmons’ chief administrative deputy. During that time, he helped develop Brown’s long-term Plan for Academic Enrichment. He played a similar role while Simmons was president of Smith College. While at Smith, Greene helped oversee planning efforts that resulted in an ambitious expansion of facilities and programs.

Greene received a B.A. in history in 1985 from Hamilton College and earned three degrees from Harvard University: a master’s in human development and psychology in 1991, a master’s in administration, planning and social policy in 1994, and a doctorate in administration, planning and social policy in 2002.

His research interests include the influence of social and political movements on U.S. higher education. His book, The Women’s Movement and the Politics of Change at a Women’s College, was published in 2004 by Routledge Falmer Press.