Leadership
Leadership, collaboration, passion and vision propel UWM to greater heights in student achievement, research, community engagement and partnerships, talent pipeline growth and future sustainability.
Chancellor’s Cabinet members include direct reports to the chancellor, shared governance chairs, and other institutional leaders whose units impact the university’s strategic directions. This group meets regularly on topics related to university administration and operations and meets periodically with deans on strategic planning.
Office of the Chancellor
Leadership • Strategic Initiatives • Government Relations • Budget & Fundraising
Mark A. Mone
Chancellor
mone@uwm.edu
414-229-4331
Mark A. Mone
Mark Mone has made student success, growing research and partnerships, and fostering entrepreneurship and innovation his priorities, even as he manages the unprecedented fiscal challenges facing the university. Prior to being named the university’s ninth chancellor in 2014, he led UWM’s executive education and business engagement initiatives, including the longest-running Executive MBA program in Wisconsin. With the superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools and president of Milwaukee Area Technical College, Mone co-founded and co-leads the M3 Initiative, which seeks to close the achievement gap and transform the future of Milwaukee through education. He earned his doctorate in organizational behavior and organization theory from Washington State University.
Chancellor’s Direct Reports
Academic Affairs
Andrew Daire
Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
daire@uwm.edu
414-229-4501
Community Empowerment and Institutional Inclusivity
uwm.edu/community-empowerment-institutional-inclusivity
Chia Youyee Vang
Vice Chancellor for Community Empowerment and Institutional Inclusivity
vangcy@uwm.edu
414-229-1101
Finance & Administrative Affairs
uwm.edu/finance-administrative-affairs
Robin Van Harpen
Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs
rvanharp@uwm.edu
414-229-2629
Marketing, Communications & University Relations
Olivia (Liv) Hwang
Vice Chancellor for Marketing, Communications & University Relations
hwango@uwm.edu
414-251-6421
Office of the Chancellor
Sue Weslow
Chief of Staff to the Chancellor
sweslow@uwm.edu
414-229-4331
Office of Legal Affairs
Joely Urdan
Chief Legal Counsel & Director of Legal Affairs
jurdan@uwm.edu
414-229-4370
Strategic Partnerships
uwm.edu/strategic-partnerships
Brian D. Thompson
Chief Innovation & Partnership Officer
briant@uwm.edu
414-213-6704
Student Affairs
Kelly Haag
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
kajohnso@uwm.edu
414-229-4508
University Advancement
Joan Nesbitt
Vice Chancellor for University Advancement
nesbitjm@uwm.edu
414-229-3013
Joan Nesbitt
Joan Nesbitt is a fifth generation Oklahoman with Native American heritage (enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation). She earned a BA in Communication from The University of Tulsa and an MA in Organizational Dynamics from The University of Oklahoma. She has more than 30 years’ experience in university advancement, the last 17 at the executive level, and she has been a part of four successful comprehensive campaigns. She and her teams have been recognized multiple times for fundraising and engagement excellence by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, including two national CASE awards in 2016 and 2020 for overall fundraising. In 2020, Joan and the Advancement team at Missouri S&T closed a $300 million charitable gift, the fifth largest of all time to a public university and the largest in Missouri history.
Robin Van Harpen
As the senior vice chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs and Chief Business Officer, Robin Van Harpen is responsible for UWM’s finances and oversees a number of administrative units that keep the university running, including financial services, budget, procurement, facilities, campus planning, transportation services, safety/risk management, human resources, IT, police and legal. An attorney, she served as UWM’s chief legal counsel from 2004 to 2012. Prior to joining UWM in 2001, Van Harpen worked for the Milwaukee law firm von Briesen & Roper, s.c., practicing school law. She earned her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.
Chia Youyee Vang
As vice chancellor for Community Empowerment and Institutional Inclusivity, Chia Youyee Vang leads efforts to advance diversity and equity and foster inclusion for all campus community members. Vang served as associate vice chancellor for Global Inclusion and Engagement from 2017-2021. A professor of history, she has been on the UWM faculty since 2006. Her teaching and research interests include 20th century U.S. international history, with particular emphasis on its relation to refugee migration. Outside of academia, Vang has 10 years of experience providing program evaluation, planning and policy research consulting services. She earned her doctorate in American Studies from the University of Minnesota.
Kelly Haag
Haag leads a diverse team responsible for supporting students in a division that includes Athletics, the Dean of Students Office, University Housing, University Recreation, the UWM Student Union, Norris Health Center, Retail Services, Children’s Learning Center, and various student life areas. She worked for many years in University Housing and served as its director from 2011 until her appointment as chief student affairs officer in January 2018. Her notable accomplishments include implementation of UWM’s living learning community program and the university’s inclusive housing policy.
Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson is Chief Innovation and Partnership Officer and leads UWM’s Office of Strategic Partnerships. He is responsible for partnerships with corporations, non-profit organizations, and other groups to enhance and uplift the academic enterprise, research accomplishments, and student experiences at UWM. In this role, he oversees key initiatives that include the Connected Systems Institute (CSI), Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute (NMDSI), Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin (FCW), and the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center (LEC). Thompson joined the UWM community in 2006 to help launch the UWM Research Foundation which he led through 2022. He also served as Director of the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center from 2016 to 2023 and is Co-PI on the Milwaukee I-Corps (Innovation Corps) program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Thompson has taught new ventures as an adjunct instructor in the Lubar College of Business and the UWM Honors College. In previous roles, Mr. Thompson led the development and launch of communications satellites, worked in corporate ventures and helped create startups in biotechnology and the entertainment industry. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from UCLA.
Andrew Daire
In his role as provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, Andrew P. Daire serves as UWM’s chief academic officer overseeing all academic operations. He is responsible for administration of all schools and colleges, enrollment management and many other centers, institutes, and units in the Division of Academic Affairs. Daire came to UWM in 2023 and is also a professor in Educational Psychology. His research interests include family stability and economic mobility and career development in STEM recruitment and retention. He previously served as dean of the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and held prior positions at the University of Houston and the University of Central Florida. He earned his doctorate in Counseling Psychology and School Psychology from Florida State University.
Joely Urdan
As Chief Legal Counsel, Joely Urdan is responsible for the provision of legal services to the institution and focuses her own legal practice on employment and personnel matters, administrative policies, litigation, student conduct issues, and campus safety. She also oversees UWM’s Office of Compliance and Ethics. Before UWM, she spent four years at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, where she represented state agencies and state employees in state and federal litigation and argued appeals before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Wisconsin Supreme Court. She joined UWM in July 2003 and served as Legal Affairs’ associate director from January 2005 until she was named interim director in October 2012 and Chief Legal Counsel in May 2014. She earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and Bachelor of Arts from UW-Madison.
Sue Weslow
As Chief of Staff to Chancellor Mark Mone, Sue Weslow serves as an advisor, oversees a wide variety of initiatives involving UWM’ strategic priorities, and manages effective communication, coordination, and implementation of university-wide projects. Sue has worked at UWM since 1997 with prior roles as senior university legal counsel, associate vice chancellor of finance and administrative affairs, assistant dean in the College of Letters & Science, and associate vice chancellor of human resources. Sue earned her Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Business Administration from UW-Milwaukee and a Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Olivia (Liv) Hwang
Olivia (Liv) Hwang serves as Vice Chancellor for Marketing, Communications & University Relations at UWM. She leads external and government relations, strategic marketing and communication, web, print and copy, licensing, marketing partnerships, and brand strategy efforts. Liv and her teams are strengthening UWM’s position in the Midwest and across the globe while driving enrollment and expanding access to higher education. Before joining UWM, Liv spent more than a decade in state government leadership roles in Wisconsin and Louisiana. She helped lead initiatives such as Wisconsin’s pandemic recovery efforts, the state’s first coordinated health insurance enrollment campaign, and Louisiana’s strategic communications response to the 2010 BP oil spill. Liv earned her bachelor’s degree from Tulane University and was a 2014 New Leaders Council Louisiana Fellow.