President Bendapudi recognized for contributions to higher education

March 2, 2021

In honor of Women's History Month, the publication "Diverse: Issues in Higher Education" has published its annual report recognizing women's contributions to higher education.

UofL President Neeli Bendapudi is included on its list of 25 women.

The 10th annual special edition highlights "women who have made a difference in the academy by tackling some of higher education's toughest challenges, exhibiting extraordinary leadership skills and making a positive difference in their respective communities."

In 2020, President Bendapudi led UofL's operational shift to online and hybrid classes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also under her leadership, and despite the crisis, UofL achieved a number of milestones in 2020, including a record-breaking year for research, the launch of health care cybersecurity curriculum thanks to a $6.3M funding round from the NSA, and the pediatric integration of UofL and Norton Healthcare.

In July, President Bendapudi announced a plan for UofL to become the "premier anti-racist metropolitan research university." The university has since made a number of key hires and added programming to support that goal.

She joins 24 other women in Diverse's 2021 class, including (alphabetically):

Venessa A. Brown, associate chancellor and chief diversity officer, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Karen Carey, chancellor, University of Alaska Southeast
Laurie Carter, president, Shippensburg University
Robin R. Means Coleman, associate provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, Northwestern University
Karlyn Crowley, provost, Ohio Wesleyan University
Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of education emeritus and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, Stanford University
Carol Fierke, provost and executive vice president, Brandeis University
Angelica Garcia, president, Berkeley City College
Ayanna Howard, dean of the college of engineering, Ohio State University
Parneshia Jones, director, Northwestern University Press
Caroline Laguerre-Brown, vice provost for diversity, equity and community engagement, George Washington University
Cynthia Lindquist, president, Cankdeska Cikana Community College
Felicia McGinty, executive vice chancellor of administration and planning, Rutgers University
Tracey Meares, Walton Hale Hamilton professor of law and founding director of the Justice Collaboratory, Yale Law School
Traci Morris, director of the American Indian Policy Institute, Arizona State University
Erica Muhl, president, Berklee College of Music
Maureen Murphy, president, College of Southern Maryland
Madeline Pumariega, president, Miami Dade College
Desiree Reed-Francois, athletic director, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jeanne Craig Sinkford, dean emerita, College of Dentistry, Howard University
Raquel Tamez, CEO, Society of Hispanic Engineers
Nancy Jean Tubbs, director, LGBT Resource Center, University of California, Riverside
Tara VanDerveer, head women's basketball coach, Stanford University
Geraldine Young, chief diversity and inclusion officer, Frontier Nursing University