Joan Prince grew up at N. 12th and W. Center streets, taking the No. 22 bus to classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus in the early ’70s. She earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees at UWM, and worked her way up to the post of vice chancellor for partnerships and innovation.
Saturday, Prince caught a plane from Milwaukee to New York City to prepare for her next big challenge as U.S. diplomatic representative to the 67th General Assembly of the United Nations, a post to which she was nominated by President Barack Obama.
Education and global health are expected to be among her areas of focus, including issues such as infant mortality, which is of particular importance to Milwaukee because of the city’s high rate of babies dying before their first birthday.
“This is a job about protocol and diplomacy,” Prince said Friday. “These characteristics are what also are needed at a university – listening to people, looking for commonality and helping each side value what the other side thinks. . . . I’m excited about the opportunity to listen and to persuade, and to advance a positive image to others around the world.”
Prince will be part of a five-member U.S. delegation to the U.N., which begins its next session Tuesday.
Her appointment, announced last week by the White House, “is sure to open more doors for international opportunities for our students, faculty and staff,” UWM Chancellor Michael Lovell said Friday in announcing the news to UWM faculty and staff in a campuswide email.
UWM is growing its international student enrollment, and the new Zilber School of Public Health and the School of Freshwater Sciences are expected to be big draws for graduate students.
Prince will take a leave of absence from her UWM post from September through December, while the U.N. is in active session and then return to UWM full time, though her U.N. appointment is for a year and will involve occasional travel.
The announcement from the White House described it as a “key administration post.” Prince will be sworn in Tuesday by Ambassador Susan E. Rice as an alternate diplomatic representative with the honorary rank of ambassador, and begin her duties immediately. The appointment was tentatively approved by the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations, with a full voice vote from the Senate floor expected later this month.
Prince has been “an integral part of the UWM family for four decades,” Lovell said in his email to faculty and staff.
She has worked concurrently as a clinical associate professor at UWM since 1984 while holding other posts through the years, including manager of the Health Professions Partnership Initiative at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, clinical laboratory supervisor at the Franciscan Shared and Medical Sciences Laboratories and vice chancellor for partnerships and innovation.
Her relationship with UWM began in the 1970s, when she earned a bachelor’s degree in medical technology. She earned a master’s in clinical laboratory sciences and a Ph.D. in urban education, also at UWM.
“UWM has always been a good school,” Prince said. “Now it’s a great university.”
Prince said she’s looking forward to learning about the workings of the U.N. and advocating for issues she cares deeply about, including education and global health.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) helped her get there, she said, by making sure her résumé was in the mix for the president’s consideration.