M. Elizabeth “Liz” Magill

Executive Vice President and Provost
Liz Magill

Magill is dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, a position she has held since 2012. Before becoming Stanford Law School’s 13th dean, Magill was on the faculty at UVA’s School of Law for 15 years, serving most recently as vice dean, the Joseph Weintraub–Bank of America Distinguished Professor of Law and the Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Professor.

“Serving as provost at the University of Virginia is in many ways a dream come true for me,” Magill said. “The University and Charlottesville communities always have been special for me and my family. I look forward to working with President Ryan, J.J. and our outstanding deans, faculty, staff and students as we forge ahead and continue the University’s leading role in public higher education, research and service.”

At Stanford, Magill established an innovative Law and Policy Lab, a set of classes allowing students to better understand policymaking by tackling real-life policy challenges for actual clients. She also launched the Global Initiative, which established a foundational course, “Going Global: Advising Clients in a Global Economy,” along with classes that have an overseas component, taking students and faculty to China, Latin America, India and Europe. Magill also presided over the largest faculty revitalization at the law school in decades, hiring nearly 30 percent of the present faculty. At Stanford, she is known as a university citizen, leading and serving on several campus-wide and search committees in other schools.

Magill is a distinguished scholar and teacher of administrative and constitutional law. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, held a fellowship in the Law and Public Affairs Program at Princeton University and was the Thomas Jefferson visiting professor at Downing College, Cambridge University. Early in her career, she worked in the U.S. Senate and was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Reporting to Ryan, Magill will be the chief academic officer and second-in-command for the University. Working with the 11 academic deans and other senior University leaders, Magill will be responsible for advancing academic excellence at all levels of the University.

Magill will also be responsible for developing plans for academic programs, resource allocations and innovations in all programs. She will oversee faculty hiring for both teaching and research personnel, and the process by which faculty members and their departments or schools prepare for tenure and promotion reviews.

Magill earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Magill will succeed Tom Katsouleas and plans to assume the position of provost in the summer of 2019.

Magill will be the first woman to hold this position at the University.