UM-Flint tabs Abby Parrill as new provost

The University of Michigan-Flint has announced that Abby Parrill, Ph.D., will join the university as its next provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, effective June 1, pending approval by the U-M Board of Regents.

Parrill currently serves as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Memphis. In that role, she has supported the development of an expanded number of pathways for students into professional schools, secured more than $5 million in funding to support experiential learning fellowships, and led college-based initiatives that contributed to the university earning classification as a Carnegie Very High Research, or R1, institution.

She served as interim provost at Memphis from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. During that time, she joined the steering committee to fully implement a responsibility-centered management budget model, assembled teams that created five earned admission options for prospective students, and served on a Tennessee Higher Education Commission task force to improve the state's post-approval degree program monitoring process and metrics.

Parrill is a leading scholar in computational and medicinal chemistry. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, co-edited six books, and is a co-inventor on six issued patents. Her work has been cited more than 6,000 times and has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the Elsa Pardee Foundation. In 2017, she was recognized by the University of Memphis Board of Visitors with the Willard R. Sparks Eminent Faculty Award. That award is presented annually to one faculty member "who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to scholarly-creative activity, teaching and service, bringing honor and recognition to the University of Memphis." In addition, she has been recognized for excellence in teaching by three different academic institutions.

She earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Central Michigan University (1992) before adding master's and doctoral degrees in the same field from the University of Arizona (1996).