Interim Provost Underwood's biography
Julie K. Underwood
Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
University of Wisconsin-Madison
150 Bascom Hall
500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Tel: 608/262-1304
Fax: 608/265-3324
E-mail: provost@provost.wisc.edu
Julie K. Underwood, a nationally recognized authority on school law, began serving as interim provost on January 5, 2009. As interim provost, she serves as the chief operating officer of the university and deputy to the chancellor in the overall academic leadership and administrative management of the university. The provost acts as the chief executive officer of the institution in the chancellor's absence. Primary responsibilities of the position include: academic program planning involving 12 schools and colleges; faculty and staff development and personnel oversight; Dean of Students offices; enrollment management; Office for Equity and Diversity; the General Library System; information technology; diversity initiatives; outreach and extension programming; as well as collaboration with other vice chancellors in the areas of facilities planning and management, budget planning and management, human resources, and law and policy administration. The provost works closely with the deans and with faculty, staff and student committees in the exercise of shared governance of the institution.
Prior to her appointment as interim provost, Underwood served as dean of the UW-Madison School of Education, a role she has held since August 2005. Professor Adam Gamoran, Director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, is serving as interim dean of the School of Education while Underwood is Interim Provost.
Underwood taught at UW-Madison from 1986 to 1995 on the faculty of the Department of Educational Administration (now Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis). She returned to Madison after serving from 1995 to 1998 as dean of Miami University ’s School of Education and Allied Professions and from 1998 to 2005 as Associate Executive Director and General Counsel for the National School Boards Association in Washington , D.C.
At the NSBA, she led a legal advocacy program on behalf of the nation’s public school boards, including producing friend-of-the-court briefs and legal strategies before the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts. She also was responsible for the 3,000-member Council of School Attorneys.
At UW-Madison, Underwood has served as chair of the Department of Educational Administration (1993-94), associate dean of the School of Education (1994-95), and co-director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Policy at the Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public Affairs (1990-93).
She has co-authored several books, including School Law for Teachers (Prentice Hall, 2005), Legal Aspects of Special Education and Pupil Services (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1994), and The Principal’s Legal Handbook (Education Law Association, 1993).
She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from DePauw University (1976), a law degree from Indiana University (1979), and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Florida (1984).
In 2008, she received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.