Skip to main content
Announcement

Sara Ray Stoelinga, currently the Sara Liston Spurlark Director of The University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI), announced today that she will depart in July 2017 to become the President of Carroll University, a liberal arts college in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. Stoelinga will be the first female President in Carroll’s 170-year history.

Stoelinga has been UEI’s director since March 2015, and her tenure at UEI and the University spans two decades. Stoelinga joined the precursor organization to UEI directly out of the College at the University of Chicago. During her 22 years at UEI, Stoelinga has worked across UEI's diverse units, going from intern to director. As Director of UEI, Stoelinga oversees UEI’s nearly 500 employees and $46 million operating budget and leads all aspects of UEI, including the UChicago Consortium on School Research, the UChicago Charter School, the UChicago Urban Teacher Education Program and UChicago Impact, for which she serves as board chair. 

Stoelinga also serves as a clinical professor on the University of Chicago’s Committee on Education, advising undergraduate and graduate students and teaching in the UChicago Urban Teacher Education Program, the College, and the departments of Public Policy, Sociology and Human Development. She taught one of the University’s first massive online open courses (MOOCs), focused on the history of public education and school reform in the United States. In 2015, Stoelinga received the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching.

“It is with mixed emotions that I take this next step. My commitment to and affection for UEI and the University of Chicago run very deep, and it has been an honor and a privilege to spend so much of my career here,” said Stoelinga. “I am also humbled and excited to join the Carroll University community and to serve as the first female President in its history.”

University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer said Stoelinga has played a central part in UEI’s success through her leadership roles there.

“This appointment reflects Sara’s administrative leadership at the University of Chicago and her work as a scholar and educator,” Zimmer said. “We are grateful for her important contributions to UEI and the University of Chicago.”