Sharon Wood, executive vice president and provost, will leave her position at the end of the month, President Jay Hartzell announced in an email Tuesday. Rachel Davis Mersey, dean of the Moody College of Communication, will fill in as interim provost beginning Sept. 1. 

Mersey joined the University in 2020 as an associate dean for research in Moody. Before that, she served as director of Global Research Partnerships at Meta and a professor and associate dean at Northwestern University’s Medill School.

“In the relatively short time since Rachel came to the Forty Acres from Northwestern University, she has demonstrated that she is a visionary who thinks strategically and who values and embraces excellence in teaching and research,” Hartzell said in an email announcement. “She makes decisions consistent with those values and, befitting a Moody College dean, she is a highly effective communicator.”

Dr. Anita Vangelisti, Moody’s senior associate dean for faculty affairs and graduate education, will step in as interim dean in Mersey’s absence.

Wood, who served as vice president and provost for three years, will return to the Cockrell School of Engineering as a faculty member starting Aug. 31. She previously served as dean of Cockrell for seven years.

While provost, Wood launched programming such as “Take the World by the Horns,” helped build and develop the School of Civic Leadership and created the AI Cluster Hire initiative and the Office of Faculty Development, according to the announcement.

“Sharon’s impact is highly visible throughout campus and beyond, and will be felt for years to come — in the caliber of our students, the prestige of our faculty’s research, and the achievements of our alumni,” Hartzell said in the announcement. “Her leadership has amplified the benefit that Longhorns bring to society.”