31-03-2025
Drake University provost to retire at end of 2025-2026 academic year
Drake University Provost Sue Mattison announced her plan to retire at the end of the next academic year. (Photo courtesy of Drake University)
Drake University Provost Sue Mattison announced Friday she will spend just one more year at the private university before retirement, with a national search for her replacement scheduled to begin in the fall.
Mattison will conclude her career of nearly a decade at the university at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year. After that, she and her husband plan to devote their time to Habitat for Humanity volunteering efforts and visiting their daughters in New York and Chicago, according to a Drake news release.
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'Provost Mattison has been an exceptional leader and an esteemed colleague, and I'm beyond grateful for her unwavering commitment these last 10 years,' said Drake University President Marty Martin in the release. 'She has tirelessly dedicated the pinnacle of her career to fulfilling Drake's mission, and our University is better for her doing so. I wish her all the best as she begins this new chapter of her life.'
During her time at Drake, she led efforts to expand online education and diversity, equity and inclusion programming, in addition to her oversight of academic departments, office of student life and other areas of campus, the release states.
Mattison started serving as Drake's provost in 2016, according to the release, and has held positions at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa. She also attended both state universities as a student, earning her undergraduate and master's degrees from UNI and her doctorate from the UI.
Martin said in the release her background in epidemiology, starting with her studies in Iowa, helped steer the university through the COVID-19 pandemic, which he called an 'extremely challenging time.'
Mattison said it's the people who make up the Drake community she'll miss the most, according to the release.
'Serving as provost of Drake University has been one of the greatest privileges of my career,' Mattison said in the release. 'I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside such remarkable and talented colleagues and students.'
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