Nancy Zimpher

Nancy L. Zimpher (born 29 October 1946) is an American educator, state university leader, and Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY). Prior to her service at SUNY, Zimpher was a dean and professor of education at Ohio State University (where she had earned her bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees); then Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee between 1998 and 2003; and President of the University of Cincinnati from 2... more

Nancy L. Zimpher (born 29 October 1946) is an American educator, state university leader, and Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY). Prior to her service at SUNY, Zimpher was a dean and professor of education at Ohio State University (where she had earned her bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees); then Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee between 1998 and 2003; and President of the University of Cincinnati from 2003 through May, 2009. Zimpher is the first woman to serve as Chancellor of SUNY, was UWM's first woman chancellor, and was UC's first female president. Zimpher is a native of the village of Gallipolis in southern Ohio. At UWM (where she was the first female Chancellor of that university), Zimpher created the "Milwaukee Idea", a deliberately-derivative variation on the historical Wisconsin Idea that "the University's boundaries are the State's boundaries", with a strategic plan that tied UWM, with its faculty knowledge base and research... less