Driving the UAA campus: chancellor put skills and experience to work for the university.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: EDUCATION

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Like all descriptions for top-brass positions, when the job as chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage was posted, the requirements were big, broad, intimidating and just on this side of unattainable. Think part attorney, part mayor, with the political savvy of a legislator, the street smarts of a beat cop and the global perspective of the president--as in Obama. Additional qualifications: a healthy dose of rock star wouldn't hurt.

Although the responsibilities were described with phrases such as "broad delegated authority" and "all aspects of UAA administration," Chancellor Fran Ulmer, who moved into the office two years ago this month, has put her own twist on the position as CEO of UAA. Her style can best be described as the school of "get'r done." When she has an idea, she sets it in motion.

If Ulmer sees a need, she fills it. She is futuristic. She talks about where UAA will be eight years from now as though it's tomorrow, and she's thinking further ahead than that. She has more energy than most of the young athletes on her campus. And while her intelligence and perceptiveness is almost intimidating, she is described as being humble, and has a way of making everyone feel like they know just as much as she does. She even has glam factor: she performed on USO tours in the 1960s and once sang the Star Spangled Banner at a Seattle Mariners game.

Her boss, Mark Hamilton, president of the University of Alaska, says she came to UAA with many of the skills necessary to be an effective chancellor --the ability to balance competing interests, the diplomatic flair for consensus building and encouraging collaboration, and the constitution to make difficult decisions when necessary. Her prior position as a distinguished visiting professor and director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at UAA, her long history in Alaska and strong working relationships with the University's other chancellors and Hamilton's executive staff meant she didn't have the steep learning curve.

Besides her paper credentials, she's also known as a leader who is genuinely warm, believes people are basically good and is egoless, considering her critical role at the university. It is this thoughtfulness, too, Hamilton says, that is just as important. He added that she will send a thank you note to a staffer or colleague, or relay a personal story to help someone through a difficult time, possibly a sensitivity she learned as the...