Atlanta — April 18, 2017

University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley today announced the appointment of Dr. Tristan Denley as chief academic officer and executive vice chancellor of academic affairs for the University System, effective May 22, 2017.

Dr. Denley currently serves as the vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Tennessee Board of Regents, where he has worked since August 2013. Before moving to Tennessee, he was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Austin Peay State University.

“I am deeply honored to have been chosen to serve as the chief academic officer of the University System of Georgia,” said Denley. “Georgia has developed a reputation nationwide for innovation in Higher Education and I’m looking forward to furthering that work. I’m excited to work closely with the faculty, staff and campus leaders across the system to help Georgia students achieve their college dreams.”

In his new role, Denley will oversee all matters related to academics and students. He will lead student affairs and the division of academic affairs that encompasses academic programs and policy, tenure and promotion, faculty development, intercollegiate athletics, distance education, academic and public libraries, teacher preparation, accreditation and other areas.

“With Dr. Denley’s experience in developing new ways to help students graduate, we are excited to have him join our team to help advance the Complete College Georgia initiative,” said Chancellor Steve Wrigley. “Denley is a national leader in innovative student success programs and is well prepared to serve as our next chief academic officer. We are grateful to the search committee, chaired by UGA President Jere Morehead, for doing such an outstanding job.”

Denley’s most recent work for the Tennessee university system office has been to transform developmental education and advising at a system scale. His work uses a data-informed approach to implement a wide variety of system scale initiatives surrounding college completion, from education redesign in a variety of disciplines, to the role of predictive analytics and data mining, cognitive psychology and behavioral economics in higher education.

Born in Great Britain, Denley earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

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