UW System President Katherine Lyall announced the top four candidates competing to be chancellor at UW-Milwaukee Friday.

The finalists are Charles DeLisi, professor of science and engineering, physics and biomedical engineering and senior associate provost for biosciences at Boston University; Samuel Kirkpatrick, president of Eastern Michigan University; Roderick McDavis, provost and vice president for academic affairs for Virginia Commonwealth University; and Carlos Santiago, provost and vice president for academic affairs for the State University of New York at Albany.

William Holahan, UW-Milwaukee professor of economics, headed the 25-member UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Search and Screen Committee. The committee included 12 UWM faculty members in addition to Holahan, two academic staff members, two university administrators, six community members and two students.

The students who served the committee were UWM senior Mary Ryan, a political science major, and graduate student Seth Schnieder, an anthropology major.

“Both UWM and the region are on the brink of greatness,” Holahan said in a press release. “Our next leader will play a pivotal role in the success of both.”

The committee submitted their recommendations to the Board of Regents, who also formed a Special Committee for the UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Search. The regents’ committee will play a crucial role in determining the university’s new chancellor when they interview the finalists in Madison Feb. 27.

Regent Jose A. Olivieri chairs the committee, and includes fellow Regents Danae D. Davis, Elizabeth Burmaster, Charles Pruitt and Beth Richlen. Lyall will partake in the interviews.

“[The committee and the regents are] looking for a candidate with administrative experience, strong academic credentials and the ability to raise a lot of money,” said Linda Weimer, vice president of university relations for the UW System. “[The regents are looking for] somebody who can really continue the great collaborations on communications that Nancy Zimpher [UW-Milwaukee’s seventh chancellor] really took to a new level.”

Weimer said the Special Committee’s interview will be paired with the candidates’ other credentials and accomplishments before a recommendation is made to the regents. “Aside from someone who walks on water, [the regents are looking for] the usual well rounded, ideal candidate,” she said.

The Special Committee is the only party who will have direct contact with the candidates, and will make its recommendation to the full board in closed session following the late February interview. The Board of Regents will then deliberate and will have the opportunity to ask the committee questions, based on the recommendation.

“I think the interview committee will go forward with the decisions,” Weimer said. “I don’t think the regents will go back and start from square one ? [their recommendation] is not too ‘loosey goosey.'”

Weimer said she spoke with Lyall the day the release came out, and said she feels the candidates form an exceptionally strong pool of possible UWM chancellors.

The regents are hoping to announce their decision at their meeting in March.