Field Of Candidates Narrowed For NAU President

By Steve Shadley
Published: Friday, June 6, 2014 - 10:59am
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Northern Arizona University has selected a single finalist to replace retiring President John Haeger. Rita Cheng has a long list of academic accomplishments.

Cheng is currently the chancellor of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Before that she was provost and vice chancellor at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. In addition to her job as chancellor at SIU, she teaches an accounting course there and is considered an expert in international and nonprofit accounting issues. 

She received a MBA from the University of Rhode Island and doctorate in management from Temple. Cheng’s appointment to NAU still requires a final vote by the Arizona Board of Regents. She plans to visit the Flagstaff campus next week.

NAU president Haeger won’t step down for another year and he plans to stay with the university as a professor after his retirement.