2020 - Present Pat Pitney

The University of Alaska Board of Regents selected Pat Pitney to serve as the university’s interim president beginning on Aug.1, 2020. The University of Alaska Board of Regents has upped President Pat Pitney’s status from interim to permanent. Regents unanimously voted for the change on Feb. 25 at the end of a 2-day board meeting.

Previously Pitney served as the state’s Director of the Division of Legislative Finance. She was the former Vice Chancellor of Administration, University of Alaska Fairbanks and worked at UA Statewide for 17 years. In all, Pitney spent 23 years with the University of Alaska before leaving to serve as the State Budget Director in the administration of former Governor Bill Walker. 

Pitney moved to Fairbanks in 1987 from Billings, Montana. She earned her MBA from UAF and an engineering physics degree from Murray State University (Kentucky). She has three adult children and two grandchildren. All three of her children are UA graduates, with degrees from UAF, UAA and UAS.

Before moving to Alaska, she was a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team and won a gold medal in women’s air rifle.