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Jenna Rickus — most recently the senior vice provost for teaching and learning at Purdue — visited the UA campus in March as part of the provost search, a position that was ultimately filled by Prelock on May 19.

Rickus will join the UA on Sept. 29 for the annual compensation of $415,000.

The senior vice provost position was created to help coordination and collaboration of initiatives between numerous units, including academic affairs, campus community connections, faculty affairs, university analytics and institutional research and the University Center for Assessment, Teaching, and Technology, Prelock announced Thursday.

Rickus, a bioengineer and interdisciplinary scholar specializing in biofunctional materials and biosensors, will also be a full tenured professor of biomedical engineering in UA’s College of Engineering.

Prelock said Rickus’ work addresses critical challenges, including brain cancer, diabetes, foodborne illness, and space biology, and she has received more than $112 million in funded grants throughout her career.

“The campus community met Dr. Rickus last spring during the interviews and an open forum as part of the provost search process, where she emerged as a strong candidate for the position,� Prelock wrote in her announcement. “Dr. Rickus will bring a collaborative leadership style and deep interdisciplinary expertise to our leadership team. In her role, she will provide strategic guidance, foster stronger communication pathways, and champion innovation initiatives.�

In her open forum during the UA provost search, Rickus had emphasized the importance of supporting international students in the current political climate and said one-on-one student support in cases of run-ins with immigration officials and others is critical to creating a safe space.

Rickus had said that offering clear guidance and communication to faculty, advisors, coaches and staff is important, so they have the right knowledge and information to assist international students and their complicated situations. She said a “communication plan� is needed that includes not just a general email blast that goes out once in a while, but communications of information through the vice provosts and college deans.

In April, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration revoked the visas of thousands of international students, making them vulnerable to detention, deportation and arrest. Additionally, since then, immigration policies have also been tightened for international students from certain countries.

Rickus also discussed her excitement about coming to a Hispanic-Serving Institution like the UA, a federal designation for not-for-profit institutions of higher learning with undergraduate student enrollment that’s at least 25% Hispanic.

On Sept. 10, the U.S. Education Department announced plans to end discretionary grant programs for a number of , asserting such programs amount to discrimination and are unconstitutional because they require colleges to enroll a certain percentage of students from a particular racial or ethnic background to qualify.

“To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas,� said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in the announcement.