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Susan J. Hunter was named the 20th President of the University of º£½ÇÉçÇø on July 7, 2014. On July 1, 2017, she also became President of the University of º£½ÇÉçÇø at Machias, now a regional campus of Uº£½ÇÉçÇø.

She began her full-time career at the University of º£½ÇÉçÇø in 1991 as a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences. Hunter is a cell biologist whose research focused on structural and functional aspects of bone cell biology. She had grant support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

For six years, she served as a co-principal investigator of an award-winning, $3 million National Science Foundation grant that placed graduate teaching fellows in K–12 schools as science demonstrators. In addition, Hunter was the original principal investigator of a five-year, $3.3 million NSF ADVANCE grant, helping to fund Uº£½ÇÉçÇø’s Rising Tide Center, an initiative to transform the university through enhanced opportunities for women faculty members in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and social-behavioral sciences.

Her administrative positions included Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education, and five years as the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Just prior to her appointment as Uº£½ÇÉçÇø’s first woman president, Hunter served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University of º£½ÇÉçÇø System.

University of º£½ÇÉçÇø achievements under Susan J. Hunter’s leadership include advances in enrollment, fundraising, and advocacy and partnerships.

Since 2014, Uº£½ÇÉçÇø has recruited its largest incoming classes and the largest number of out-of-state students in the university’s history. Uº£½ÇÉçÇø has seen a 22 percent increase in private giving to its Annual Fund, with significant increases in all four donor societies.

In the community, President Hunter has served on the boards of directors of the º£½ÇÉçÇø School of Science and Mathematics, the Bangor Symphony and the º£½ÇÉçÇø Mathematics and Science Alliance, and participated in a planning initiative for the º£½ÇÉçÇø Arts Commission Steering Committee, in preparation for a Cultural Strategic Plan for the state of º£½ÇÉçÇø.

Currently, she serves on the boards of º£½ÇÉçÇø & Company, and the º£½ÇÉçÇø Development Foundation, and on the advisory network for the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute.

In 2016, Hunter was inducted into the Deborah Morton Society at the University of New England. She received the 2017 Wilma Award from the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of º£½ÇÉçÇø for her promotion and enhancement of cultural activities; the 2017 Kenneth M. Curtis Leadership Award from the º£½ÇÉçÇø Development Foundation; and the 2018 Catherine Lebowitz Award for Public Service from the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce.

Hunter received a bachelor’s degree in biology from James Madison University and a Ph.D. in physiology from Pennsylvania State University, and did postdoctoral work at Case Western Reserve University and Pennsylvania State University.

She received an Honorary Doctor of Science from James Madison University in December 2017 and an Honorary Doctor of Public Service from Husson University in May 2018.