Provost steps down after three years in position

After serving as the provost and executive vice president of Miami University for the past three years, Elizabeth Mullenix will be stepping down from the position this summer and returning to her teaching position in the College of Creative Arts (CCA) in the fall.

Before serving as the provost, Mullenix was an academic administrator at Miami for 19 years, the dean of CCA for nine years and chair of the Department of Theatre for seven years. Mullinex arrived at Miami in 2006 as chair and professor of theatre and artistic director and producer of Miami University Theatre.

She announced her decision to step down in The Weekly Three email she sends out to all faculty and academic affairs staff.

“It has been a great honor to serve as an academic leader at Miami for so many years,” Mullenix wrote in the email. “I feel very fortunate to have had these experiences and opportunities, and to get to know so many more Miamians during the last three years.”

Mullenix said that before her upcoming retirement, she will return to a professor position in CCA, the college she considers her roots.

“As I contemplate my last chapter before retirement, I am excited to round out my career as I started it: as a college professor,” Mullenix wrote in the email.

In a statement posted by University Communications and Marketing, President Gregory Crawford expressed his gratitude for Mullenix’s passion in the position.

“We are grateful to Liz for her longstanding commitment to the university,” President Gregory Crawford wrote. “Her passion for faculty and student success is evident in the many contributions she has made to Miami.”

Mullenix said she will resume her work on her book project about Harriett Beecher Stowe and Civil War-era theatre and performance upon her return to CCA.

Following this decision, the university will name an interim provost later this semester and begin its nationwide search for a permanent replacement.

patelou@miamioh.edu