Mariet Westermann Named Vice Chancellor Of NYU Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 28th Apr, 2019) New York University President Andrew Hamilton has announced the appointment of Mariet Westermann as the Vice Chancellor of NYU Abu Dhabi, effective 1st August 2019.

Her selection follows a 10-month long, international search that considered many outstanding candidates from around the world. Westermann is the Executive Vice President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, former provost of NYU Abu Dhabi, former director of NYU's Institute of Fine Arts, and an art historian.

Hamilton said, "We are thrilled by the appointment of Mariet Westermann. The creation of NYU Abu Dhabi was an innovative move, one that has helped make NYU pre-eminent in global education. And thanks to our shared vision with our partners, NYU Abu Dhabi has been a tremendous success: with distinguished faculty, top students from around the world from all backgrounds, and excellent leadership, it has become a regional leader in research, and its graduates have gone on to prestigious international honours, top graduate and professional programmes, and leading employers and positions."

Westermann, in turn, noted, "It is a great honour and calling to serve as NYU Abu Dhabi’s Vice Chancellor. In a brief nine years, NYU Abu Dhabi has become a unique, flourishing institution of higher education: in and of New York University, in and of Abu Dhabi, in and of the world, with a truly diverse and engaged student community, an outstanding and dedicated faculty, an innovative undergraduate curriculum, and an ambitious research agenda."

In addition to being named to the Vice Chancellorship, she will be appointed as Professor of Arts and Humanities at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Westermann has been at the Mellon Foundation since 2010, and has been the executive vice president for programmes and research since 2016. At Mellon, she has also led pathbreaking work on diversity and inclusion in American museums, and written extensively about the liberal arts, the humanities, and higher education.

Prior to the foundation, she was on the faculty at NYU, first as director of the Institute of Fine Arts and then as the first provost of NYU Abu Dhabi, where she hired the startup team and initial faculty, helped shape the curriculum and launch the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, and developed warm relationships with the Abu Dhabi community, among other important undertakings.

Before coming to NYU in 2002, she was associate director of the Clark Art Institute. From 1995 to 2001, she was an assistant and associate professor of art history at Rutgers.

She received her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Williams College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her Master’s and her PhD from NYU's Institute of Fine Arts.