Join Us in Celebrating Provost Barr-Gillespie
The Pacific community is invited to join us from 3-5 p.m. on Tuesday May 14 at the Tran Library as we celebrate provost and vice president of academic affairs, Ann Barr-Gillespie, and her distinguished career at Pacific!
Ann is retiring this summer after 36 years in higher education, the last 14 of which she has served at Pacific. She began her career at Pacific in 2010 as the vice provost and executive dean of the College of Health Professions, leading the college to a time of growth and success. She also served as vice provost for research from 2014 to 2021 and in July 2021, became the first woman to serve as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Pacific.
Throughout her tenure at Pacific, she oversaw countless strategic accomplishments including the development and expansion of the School of Audiology, the university’s first PhD program (clinical psychology), the master’s program in athletic training, and the master’s program in pharmaceutical sciences, as well as the development of Pacific’s first fully-online program (the Bachelor of Health Science, and first cross-college PhD program (education and leadership). She also shepherded the installation of simulation laboratory facilities, as well as the establishment of an Interprofessional Education and Practice Committee in the college, an Interprofessional Education Steering Committee for the university, and the completion of the Pacific Interprofessional Clinic, which opened in March 2020.
As vice provost for research, she worked with faculty and staff across the university to establish the Office of Scholarship and Sponsored Projects (OSSP), which assists faculty in the pre-award and post-award phases of investigator-initiated proposals and awards and oversees the research regulatory committees and compliance. In 2019, Pacific acquired the nonprofit Oregon Healthcare Workforce Institute, which now operates out of OSSP as an Area Health Education Center. OSSP has been instrumental in elevating Pacific to the top private university in research in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
Ann was also was instrumental in the establishment of the Graduate Council, which provides oversight of research-oriented graduate certificate, master’s and doctoral programs and the faculty who mentor students’ creative theses and dissertations.
In addition to all of these roles, she also served as chair of Pacific’s COVID-19 Task Force, which advised university leadership on education, prevention, management and operations throughout the pandemic, including in the administration of 26 vaccination clinics that provided more than 14,000 vaccinations to the surrounding communities.
Please join us in thanking Ann for her many contributions to the Pacific community and wishing her the best on this next chapter! Messages of congratulations can be sent to provost@pacificu.edu or to the attention of the Provost's Office prior to July 1 and will be presented to Ann prior to her departure.