Published: December 18, 2023
University of Tampa Names TCU Provost Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg as Its 11th President
Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg, currently provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Texas Christian University, has been named The University of Tampa’s next president by the Board of Trustees.
Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg, who will serve as UT’s 11th president, is known as an advocate of student success, innovative academic programs and inclusivity initiatives.
After a comprehensive, nationwide search that attracted more than 160 candidates, Dahlberg will become the 11th president at UT, and will provide overall strategy, general management, administration and leadership of UT’s dynamic campus of more than 11,000 students. She will begin her presidential tenure at UT on June 1, 2024.
In addition to being TCU’s chief academic officer, Dahlberg is also a professor of both computer science and engineering. She has more than 20 years of experience in higher education, as a faculty member and an administrator, and is known especially as an advocate for student success, innovative academic programs and inclusivity initiatives. At TCU she oversaw the start-up of the Burnett School of Medicine, she increased minority faculty from 16% to 22% and served as chief fundraiser for college donors.
Dahlberg will replace Ronald Vaughn, who is retiring from UT in May after almost 30 years as president. Vaughn is credited with transforming UT into a model metropolitan university, and has overseen unprecedented campus growth and stability. This fall’s total enrollment — including graduates and undergraduates — was 11,054 students, the 25th time UT has set an enrollment record. Read more about President Vaughn’s accomplishments.
“Dr. Dahlberg’s passion for top-quality academics, her support of the student experience and her administrative background makes her an excellent next president for UT,” said Charlotte Baker, chair of the UT Board of Trustees. “She is absolutely the right person to lead UT after President Vaughn’s remarkable tenure. We’re excited with what the future brings with Dr. Dahlberg at the helm.”
Prior to joining TCU in 2019, Dahlberg served as dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University (NY), where she launched strategic and advancement plans that focused on students' experience, research, and diversity and inclusion. She also created and led the college fundraising campaign which meaningfully contributed to Syracuse’s $1.5 billion Forever Orange capital campaign.
Before her position at Syracuse, Dahlberg served as chief academic officer and dean of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (NY), and associate dean of the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. At Charlotte, Dahlberg co-founded and directed the STARS Computing Corps, a National Science Foundation Alliance that engaged over 50 colleges and universities in service-learning, and led the Diversity in Information Technology Institute, an action research center that strengthened the STEM pipeline from K-12 to the professoriate.
In her academic career, Dahlberg has been the principal investigator for over $20 million in external funding for projects in areas of computer education, broadening participation in computing and wireless networking research.
Dahlberg said she looks to build upon UT’s already remarkable record of success by strengthening success and diversity measures for students and faculty, increasing UT’s institutional reputation, bolstering its financial sustainability and building the University’s endowment.
“UT’s upward trajectory and transformation over the past three decades is an impressive and exciting story, and today the University is well-positioned to become an elite, world-renowned university,” Dahlberg said. “The prospect of building an even stronger and more impactful UT is a challenge that I embrace, and I look forward to working with the UT community – the students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends and partners – in ushering UT into its next era of greatness.”
Dahlberg began her professional career with the IBM Corporation in North Carolina. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and earned both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, where she is a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame.
