Elizabeth “Betsy” R. Cantwell selected as USU’s 17th President
Elizabeth “Betsy” R. Cantwell will be the 17th President of Utah State University. She was selected by a unanimous vote of the Utah Board of Higher Education on Friday afternoon. Cantwell addressed a crowd inside the Taggart Student Center ballroom after the announcement.
“Thank you all for your faith in me. I will do everything to make good on my capacity to serve,”
Cantwell said. “I am so pleased to be able to take everything that I’ve done and bring it here and
really offer it to all of you as service because I think that is the best way to enable you all to
move forward.”
Cantwell said. “I am so pleased to be able to take everything that I’ve done and bring it here and
really offer it to all of you as service because I think that is the best way to enable you all to
move forward.”
Cantwell was selected from a pool of three finalists after a national search was conducted by a
19-member search committee. She will succeed President Noelle Cockett who will step down in
June.
“I am enormously grateful to the board for their faith in me,” Cantwell said. “I will do everything
in my power to step into a place that has been basically made beautiful by President Cockett and
move us all forward into what is truly an incredible future for Utah State University and for the
state of Utah.”
Abe Rodriguez, student body president of the Utah State University Student Association, said it
will take some time for students to adjust to Cantwell, but they will come to see her “genuine
interest in wanting students to succeed.”
“What I am really excited about her is how she is going to bring real change,” Rodriguez said.
Some of that “real change” includes plans to simplify university policies into “plain English” as
well as elevate the community and focus on research that will “improve our communities across
the state,” according to Rodriguez.
the state,” according to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez believes Cantwell will be open to student input. Rodriguez added that he’s “humbled
and honored” to be the first student body president to serve with Cantwell. He said he will strive
to “establish good working relationships with Cantwell and her administration.”
“I want students to know your voices will be heard,” Rodriguez said. “I understand that there can
be a lot of uncertainties when there’s change but I do believe that it is time to change so I’m
really excited to see the ways that she will bring change that will put our university in a better
position to be successful.”
Cantwell comes to Utah State from the University of Arizona where she has been serving as the
institution’s senior vice president for research & innovation. Before that, Cantwell was the vice
president for research development and CEO of the ASU Research Enterprise at Arizona State
University.
Cantwell’s background before academia was in science and research as she previously worked as
director for both economic development and engineering mission strategy at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. Cantwell serves on several boards including NASEM Committee on NASA Critical Workforce,
Technology & Infrastructure and the ISS National Laboratory. She is also the chair of the Space
Telescope Science Institute Council and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science in industrial science and technology.