Office of the President

National Search for UTSA's Vice President for Research, Economic Development and Knowledge Enterprise

May 7, 2019
National Search for UTSA's Vice President for Research, Economic Development and Knowledge Enterprise


Dear Roadrunners, 

I am writing to announce that UTSA is embarking on a national search for a permanent Vice President for Research, Economic Development and Knowledge Enterprise (VPREDKE).

This division is critical to achieving UTSA’s destination as a great public research university, and I’m immensely grateful to Bernard Arulanandam for leading our efforts in this area over the last three years. As Interim Vice President, Dr. Arulanandam cultivated a strong team and implemented creative strategies to advance UTSA’s research prowess. His work to bring us ever closer to accessing the National Research University Fund and attaining a Carnegie R1 classification through our Research Excellence Initiative is worthy of our sincerest appreciation, and I have encouraged him to apply for the permanent position.

The search for our VPREDKE will be led by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy. In the days to come, Dr. Espy will be appointing a search committee comprised of faculty, staff and students to take on the important responsibility of identifying the very best candidate to carry UTSA’s discovery enterprise forward, building UTSA’s national reputation in our signature areas of research excellence. Given Dr. Espy’s expertise in this area, we will not be hiring an outside firm to assist with this search.

Once the position is posted, a search website will be launched and announced via UTSA Today. The bulk of the search committee’s work will take place this summer, with the intent of naming our VPREDKE during the fall semester.

This next chapter in our journey toward research excellence is sure to be an exciting one. Thank you, as always, for your support as we continue to make progress toward our bold vision for UTSA.

With appreciation, 

Taylor