Ann E. Cudd

As provost and senior vice chancellor, Ann E. Cudd has primary responsibility for Pitt’s academic mission. Her duties include supporting scholarly excellence among more than 4,800 full-time faculty members and academic success among more than 33,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students on all five campuses.

Since her appointment in 2018, Cudd has focused her initial priorities on programs, strategies and initiatives that bolster and enhance the University’s strength and vision for growth and transformation. These include leading efforts to personalize education, build on excellence in teaching and research, foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, improve access and lower student debt, support data-driven decision-making, and achieve efficiencies and cost savings.

Her plans to address access and affordability, as well as diversity and inclusion, have propelled the development of the new Pitt Success Program, a groundbreaking initiative to invest in both current students and prospective students with the greatest need. Through the program, students who qualify for the U.S. Department of Education’s Pell Grant program see those federal funds matched dollar for dollar by Pitt. Cudd also launched a related initiative—the Provost Academy—a summer bridge program designed to help students experience a successful first year, with ongoing opportunities for support throughout their remaining undergraduate years.

Cudd has led the successful completion of several notable executive searches, including the presidencies of Pitt-Bradford/Pitt-Titusville and Pitt-Greensburg. Most recently, she chaired the search committee charged with identifying the University’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine.

Cudd previously served as Boston University’s dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which is the institution’s largest college. She oversaw all strategic decisions related to the college’s academic, financial and administrative direction and growth.

Prior to joining Boston University, Cudd served for 25 years at the University of Kansas, where she earned the title of University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and held various positions of increasing responsibility—from director of graduate studies and director of women, gender and sexuality studies to associate dean for humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies.

Cudd is an active faculty member in the philosophy department at Pitt and accomplished teacher and scholar whose research explores themes of oppression, economic inequality, capitalism and gender. Her philosophical interests—the focus of more than 60 books, articles and chapters published under her name—span social and political philosophy, philosophy of economics, decision theory and feminist theory.

Cudd holds a Doctorate in Philosophy and two master’s degrees—a Master of Arts in philosophy and a Master of Arts in economics—all earned at the University of Pittsburgh. She also has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy from Swarthmore College.