Wayne State University President Irvin D. Reid announced today the appointment of Nancy S. Barrett as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs effective June 15, 2003.

Barrett was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for seven years. She was responsible for all academic and research programs and a variety of academic services. Barrett succeeds Paula C. Wood, who has been serving as interim provost. Wood will continue as dean of the College of Education.

Before her tenure at Alabama, Barrett was provost and vice president of academic affairs at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo from 1991-96. She also has been dean of the College of Business Administration at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, N.J., and on the economics faculty at American University in Washington, D.C.

Barrett served in the U.S. Department of Labor from 1979 to 1981 as deputy and acting assistant secretary for policy, evaluation and research. She also was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers senior staff, and a member of the Carter-Mondale transition team. She served as deputy assistant director for fiscal analysis for the Congressional Budget Office from 1975 to 1976.

"We are pleased to have attracted someone with Dr. Barrett's dynamic background, who brings a wealth of academic experience, to become our new provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wayne State University," said Wayne State President Irvin D. Reid.

Barrett has a bachelor's degree from Goucher College in Towson, Md., where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and master's and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, all in economics. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Institute of Economic Studies in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1973. She also received a National Science Foundation Fellowship and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Harvard University.

"I am honored to be named provost at Wayne State University," Barrett said. "I look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the academic direction of such a dynamic and diverse institution, as well as to working with the university's talented faculty, staff and students."

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.