Pat Pitney
Pitney in 1984
President of the University of Alaska System
Assumed office
August 1, 2020
Preceded byJim Johnsen
Personal details
Born
Karen Patricia Spurgin

(1965-08-10) August 10, 1965
Billings, Montana, U.S.
EducationMurray State University (BS)
University of Alaska, Fairbanks (MBA)
CabinetPitney in 1984
Sports career
Medal record
Women's shooting
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place1984 Los Angeles Air rifle

Karen Patricia "Pat" Pitney (née Spurgin, born August 10, 1965) is an American university administrator, former Alaska state government official, and Olympic gold medalist. She is the president of the University of Alaska system.

Early life and education

Born in Billings, Montana, Pitney competed and won a gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics.[1][2] She became the first Olympic Champion in Air Rifle for Women, at the time being an 18-year-old student at Murray State University, Kentucky. The Pat Spurgin Rifle Range at Murray State University is named after her.[3] She earned a degree in engineering physics from Murray State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.[4]

University of Alaska

Pitney held administrative positions at the University of Alaska for 23 years.[5] From 2008 to 2014, she was the vice chancellor for administrative services at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. While vice chancellor, she also served as finance vice president for the University of the Arctic, starting in 2012.[6][7]

Pitney volunteered as an assistant coach for the Alaska Nanooks rifle team at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for almost two decades.[8] The team won nine NCAA Rifle Championships during that time.[9]

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games

Pitney was a torchbearer for the Sochi 2014 Olympics torch relay. She traveled 3,100 miles on the Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy to the North Pole, where the crew ignited a cauldron with the Olympic torch.[10]

State of Alaska

In December 2014, newly elected Alaska Governor Bill Walker appointed Pitney as director of the Office of Management and Budget[11] During the 2014-2018 Walker administration, Pitney focused on managing the impact of collapsing oil prices on the Alaska state budget.[12][13][14][15][16][17] Pitney then became director of the state of Alaska's Legislative Finance Division in January 2020.[18]

University of Alaska president

Pitney became interim president of the University of Alaska system on August 1, 2020. She succeeded acting President Michelle Rizk, who had stepped in after the resignation of President Jim Johnsen on June 22.[4] Pitney's term was originally set to expire when a permanent university president was recruited.[19] However, on January 31, 2022, the chair of the University of Alaska Board of Regents, Sherri Buretta, proposed that the pending recruitment be cancelled and that Pitney be appointed as permanent president, effective immediately.[20] Although faculty, student and staff governance groups all protested their exclusion from the decision-making process,[21] the Board of Regents unanimously accepted the proposal on February 25; Buretta noted that Pitney was the first woman to hold the University of Alaska presidency as a permanent position.[22]

Pitney inherited an ongoing downsizing of the university system in response to a three-year program of scheduled reductions in financial support from the state of Alaska. Her presidency began at the start of the second year of the reductions. To compensate for reduced funding from the state, Pitney has pursued private philanthropists,[23][24] external grants for research programs, and completion of the University of Alaska's federal land grant endowment.[25] Pitney reported in early 2023 that in the previous year the University of Alaska system had "reached the highest level ever of externally funded research".[26] The completion of the land grant had passed a milestone in December 2022 with the passage of the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, which directed the Bureau of Land Management to begin the process of transferring 360,000 acres of federal land to the university.[27]

The Pitney administration's academic focus has been on programs which directly benefit the Alaska economy, such as alternative energy, marine farming, health care education, heavy oil recovery, mining of critical minerals, and development of drone aircraft applications.[28] In the face of budget cuts, Pitney has also pushed forward the Alaska Native Success Initiative, which increases the involvement of Alaskan native students and faculty in University academics.[28][24]

The first year of Pitney's presidency was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down most on-campus activities in the spring of 2020 in favor of remote instruction. Her administration gradually reopened those on-campus activities, with all in-person classes resuming in the fall of 2021.[29][24]

Other activities

Pitney joined the Board of Directors of First National Bank Alaska in October 2022.[30]

Legacy

Pitney has been inducted into the USA Shooting Hall of fame.[31]

References

  1. ↑ "Pat Spurgin". databaseOlympics.com. databaseSports.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Pat Pitney". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Pat Spurgin Rifle Range". Murray State Racers. Murray State University Athletics. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  4. 1 2 "UA regents name Pat Pitney as interim president". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. 14 July 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  5. ↑ "UA Board of Regents names Pat Pitney interim president". Anchorage Press. 14 July 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  6. ↑ "Pitney named to University of Arctic vice president post". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  7. ↑ Grimes, Marmian (28 August 2012). "Pitney named UArctic finance vice president". University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  8. ↑ Bernier, Blake (19 May 2020). "Spurgin's Olympic gold moment". Murray Ledger. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  9. ↑ "Pat Spurgin". Olympedia. OlyMADMen. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  10. ↑ Zaccardi, Nick (25 October 2013). "Olympic flame's trip to North Pole (photos)". NBC Sports. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  11. ↑ Cole, Dermot (27 December 2014). "Alaska state budget director has Olympic credentials". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  12. ↑ Buxton, Matt (23 April 2015). "Gov. Walker plans public education effort about Alaska's budget gap". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  13. ↑ Buxton, Matt (5 October 2015). "Alaska budget chief: Cuts only one piece of Alaska fiscal picture". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  14. ↑ Kwong, Emily (8 December 2015). "Budget director uses money game to illustrate state's plight". Alaska Public Media. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  15. ↑ Buxton, Matt (2 February 2016). "Budget director attempts to explain consequences of $30 million cuts". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  16. ↑ Kitchenman, Andrew (7 November 2017). "Spending gap could hurt Alaska Permanent Fund, budget director says". Alaska Public Media. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  17. ↑ McChesney, Rashah (29 January 2018). "Higher oil prices help, but don't solve the state's budget problem". Alaska Public Media. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  18. ↑ McChesney, Rashah (27 January 2020). "Pat Pitney to head Legislative Finance". Alaska Public Media. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  19. ↑ Treinen, Lex (15 January 2021). "Pitney to serve as interim University of Alaska President until 2022". Alaska Public Media. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  20. ↑ Hersey, Linda (3 February 2022). "Pat Pitney on path to be University of Alaska's permanent president". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  21. ↑ Bross, Dan (28 February 2022). "Pat Pitney named permanent University of Alaska president". Alaska Public Media. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  22. ↑ Hersey, Linda (25 February 2022). "Pat Pitney appointed University of Alaska president". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  23. ↑ Bohman, Amanda (25 February 2021). "UA positioned to stay competitive despite cuts, says system president". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  24. 1 2 3 Segall, Peter (27 January 2022). "UA President: University has turned a corner on funding". Juneau Empire. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  25. ↑ Hersey, Linda (6 June 2021). "University of Alaska charts a course for the future". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  26. ↑ Barnwell, Jack (22 February 2023). "Pat Pitney: University system is key to workforce development". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  27. ↑ Brooks, James (30 December 2022). "University of Alaska will gain land under new federal budget law". Alaska Beacon. States Newsroom. Retrieved 31 December 2022. Under the terms of the legislation, the Bureau of Land Management must create a program within four years to transfer 360,000 acres of federal land selected by the state of Alaska and the University of Alaska.
  28. 1 2 Hersey, Linda (14 February 2022). "University of Alaska seeks 3% budget increase over fiscal 2022". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  29. ↑ Hersey, Linda (5 June 2021). "UA prepares for classroom learning post-Covid". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  30. ↑ "First National Bank Alaska announces Pat Pitney to join Board of Directors". KINY. Juneau, Alaska. 16 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  31. ↑ "Pat (Spurgin) Pitney". usashooting.org. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
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