Biography/History

On 13 October 1955, Governor Walter Kohler of Wisconsin signed into law the merger of the Wisconsin State College, Milwaukee and parts of the University of Wisconsin-Extension to form the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Dr. J. Martin Klotsche, president of the Wisconsin State College, Milwaukee, was appointed provost. In January 1965, the title provost was changed to chancellor. The chancellor is the chief administrative officer at UWM, and reports to the UW System Board of Regents.

Provosts and Chancellors

1956-1965	Provost J. Martin Klotsche
1965-1973	Chancellor J. Martin Klotsche
1973-1979	Chancellor Werner A. Baum
1979-1980	Interim Chancellor Leon M. Schur
1980-1985	Chancellor Frank E. Horton
1985-1986	Interim Chancellor Norma S. Rees
1986-1990	Chancellor Clifford V. Smith, Jr.
1990-1991	Interim Chancellor John H. Schroeder
1991-1998	Chancellor John H. Schroeder
1998-2003	Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher
2003-2004	Interim Chancellor Bob Greenstreet
2004-2010	Chancellor Carlos E. Santiago
2010-2014	Chancellor Michael Lovell
2014	Interim Chancellor Mark Mone
2014-	Chancellor Mark Mone

J. Martin Klotsche

Johannes Martin Klotsche was born in Scribner, Nebraska, on November 28, 1907. He entered Midland College at age thirteen and graduated four years later with the highest scholastic average in his class. Klotsche earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin in 1931, and came to the Milwaukee State Teachers College that same year as a history teacher. In 1942 he was appointed dean of instruction and, in 1946, named president of the college. In 1951 the institution was renamed Wisconsin State College, and in 1956 it became the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Klotsche was appointed provost of the new university and in 1965 his title was changed to chancellor. He retired as chancellor in 1973, but remained on the faculty of the history department until 1978. The author of The Urban University and the Future of Our Cities (1966), Klotsche served as president of the Association of Urban Universities. He also wrote a history of the development of UWM since its founding, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: An Urban University (1972), Confessions of an Educator (1985), Life Begins At 80 (1991; with Dr. Adolph Suppan), and The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: A Historical Profile, 1885-1992 (1992; with Frank A. Cassell and Frederick I. Olson). Klotsche died on 4 February 1995.

Werner A. Baum

A native of Germany, Werner A. Baum received his B.S. degree in mathematics, his M.S. in meteorology, and his Ph.D. in meteorology, all from the University of Chicago. He began his academic career at the University of Maryland. Baum next spent fourteen years at Florida State University, first as the head of the department of meteorology and later as vice president for academic affairs. From 1963 to 1965, Baum was vice president for academic affairs and a professor of meteorology at the University of Miami. He left Miami in 1965 to assume the position of vice president for scientific affairs at New York University. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Baum Deputy Director of the Environmental Science Services Administration (now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Baum was president of the University of Rhode Island before coming to UWM. Baum served as UWM's chancellor from 1973-1979, and then retired.

Frank E. Horton

Frank E. Horton received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Western Illinois University and a master's degree and Ph.D. in geography from Northwestern University. Horton was professor of geography, director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Research, and dean for advanced studies at the University of Iowa. Horton was also a member of the Executive Committee and chair of the Urban Affairs Division of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. Before assuming the leadership of UWM, Horton served as vice president for academic affairs and research at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Horton was UWM's chancellor from 1980-1985. He left UWM to assume the presidency of the University of Oklahoma, and is currently president of the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Clifford V. Smith, Jr.

Clifford Smith received a B.S. in civil engineering from the State University of Iowa, an M.S. in environmental engineering and water resources from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in radiological science, also from Johns Hopkins. He served as special assistant to the chancellor of the Oregon State System of Higher Education and for two years as the director of the Council for the Advancement of Science and Engineering Education/Research for Industry. Smith was a member of the faculty at the City University of New York, Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Connecticut. Smith came to UWM from Oregon State University, where he was head of the Radiation Center and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. Smith was chancellor at UWM from 1986-1990. He left UWM to become president of the General Electric Foundation.

John H. Schroeder

John Schroeder received his Ph.D. in 19th-century US naval, diplomatic, and maritime history from the University of Virginia in 1971. Prior to being named chancellor, Schroeder served as a professor in the UWM Department of History and as vice chancellor from 1985 to 1990. During his tenure as chancellor, Schroeder saw UWM named one of only 125 Research II universities in the country by the Carnegie Foundation, a designation recognizing its contribution to teaching and research. He also launched a long-range planning process that resulted in a strategic plan for UWM that called for a continuation of the university’s commitment to research excellence and student learning. Schroeder returned to the History Department following his resignation as chancellor in 1998.

Nancy L. Zimpher

Nancy L. Zimpher was UWM's sixth chancellor and first female chancellor. During her tenure, the faculty, staff, and students of the university strengthened their connections with off-campus constituents by developing the Milwaukee Idea, which focused on improving education, economic development, and the environment and public health. The processes behind the creation of the Milwaukee Idea were chronicled in the book A Time for Boldness: A Story of Institutional Change, which Dr. Zimpher co-wrote with Dr. Stephen L. Percy, director of UWM's Center for Urban Initiatives, and Mary Jane Brukardt, former senior writer at UWM. Dr. Zimpher and her husband, Dr. Ken Howey, were deeply involved in the creation and first years of the Milwaukee Partnership Academy, which seeks to ensure the academic success of K-12 students in Milwaukee. The coalition represented by the academy, including the Milwaukee Public Schools, Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce and Private Industry Council, is a perfect example of the collaborative, far-reaching partnerships that typified Dr. Zimpher's administration. On October 1, 2003, she became the first woman president at the University of Cincinnati.

Carlos E. Santiago

Throughout his tenure, Chancellor Santiago focused on the university's historic mission of providing student access and opportunity, delivering high-quality instruction, and becoming a premiere research university.

Working in concert with the university's governance structure, he led UWM during a period in which enrollment and degrees granted both grew by 12 percent, student retention through Access to Success increased for all students and especially students of color, doctoral programs increased from 19 to 30, and two new academic schools, for public health and freshwater sciences, were established.

Research expenditures increased from $36 million (2003-2004) to $68 million (2009-2010), an increase of 89 percent. Two affiliate organizations of the UWM Foundation, the Real Estate Foundation and Research Foundation, were created during Chancellor Santiago's term. The Real Estate Foundation coordinated the privately funded construction of two new residence halls: RiverView (2008) and Cambridge Commons (2010). Santiago retired in October 2010 to become the Chief Executive Officer of the Hispanic College Fund.

Michael R. Lovell

Michael R. Lovell was confirmed as the eighth Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May 2011. He joined UWM in 2008 as dean of the College of Engineering & Applied Science and a professor of mechanical engineering. He was subsequently named a State of Wisconsin Distinguished Professor, a designation by the University of Wisconsin System that recognizes and supports professorships in areas of vital or emerging significance to the state.

Chancellor Lovell continued to push forward several university construction initiatives including its 89-acre Innovation Campus in Wauwatosa; $53-million expansion of its School of Freshwater Sciences on the Milwaukee inner harbor; and the first phase of the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex, the first new all-academic building to be constructed on the UWM main campus in nearly two decades.

Lovell created or strengthened partnerships with many Milwaukee-area corporations. Work with Johnson Controls and the University of Wisconsin was especially successful as was work in the area of freshwater science, where the he served on the board of The Water Council and supported the university's participation in the Global Water Center. Chancellor Lovell is Chairman Emeritus of the Mid-West Energy Research Consortium, which has grown to have corporate and academic representatives from seven states who are united in their desire to make the region the U.S. leader in energy, power, and control.

Mark Mone

Mark Mone was confirmed as the ninth Chancellor of UWM in December 2014. In his previous position he was a Professor of Management in the UWM Lubar School of Business, and also served as the former Chancellor's Designee for Strategic Planning and Campus Climate. Mone joined the UWM faculty in 1989, serving for more than 15 years as the Associate Dean for Executive Education and Business Engagement. His responsibilities involved external relations for the School, including partnerships with business, medical, legal, government, and not-for profit organizations. Mone was responsible for the Executive MBA program, the longest running program of its kind in Wisconsin, Career Services, and other financial and marketing functions.

Mone received a B.S. in Management from Central Washington University, his M.B.A. from Idaho State University, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Organization Theory from Washington State University.

Prior to joining the Lubar School of Business, Mone taught Organizational Behavior and Strategic Management in the College of Business and Economics for five years at Washington State University. He also taught at HotelConsult in Le Bouveret, Switzerland, and regularly led Executive MBA students on international residencies. While at Washington State University, Mone received the Alumni Association's Award for outstanding teaching. He also received both the UWM School of Business Administration Advisory Board's Annual Award for Teaching Excellence and the Advisory Board's Izzet Sahin Annual Research Award.