Kimberly van Noort has been named Vice President for Academic Programs and Instructional Strategy of the 17-campus University of North Carolina. She comes to the UNC system staff from the University of Texas at Arlington, the second largest campus in the UT system, where she currently serves as Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Director of University College. The appointment is effective April 29, 2016.

In her new role, van Noort will have primary responsibility for identifying, creating, and leading new strategies to make higher education more effective for students, adults, and nontraditional learners. To that end, she will oversee UNC academic program planning and assessment, the implementation of credit for prior learning, and the development and implementation of competency-based approaches to curriculum development and assessment of student learning. She also will work with all 17 UNC campuses to shape the future direction of academic programs across the University and provide leadership for special projects that represent innovative collaborations among institutions.

Born and raised on a family farm and livestock operation in rural Nebraska, van Noort was the first member of her family to earn a college degree. After graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French, she earned her PhD from Boston University. An expert in French literature, her academic research has focused on the twentieth-century novel in France.

She began her academic career at UT-Arlington in 1995 and became Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in its College of Liberal Arts in 2004. A strong advocate of study abroad, van Noort established the university’s first faculty-led program in France, built new graduate student support mechanisms, developed faculty review and workload policies, and implemented a new advising model across the campus.

Promoted to Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Director of University College in 2014, van Noort has extensive experience in strategic planning, accreditation oversight, and program assessment. In these roles, she has spearheaded a redesign of UT-Arlington’s core curriculum, creation of new degree programs, and expansion of a general education degree-completion program. She also has expanded student success programs, overseen significant expansion of online services, and implemented new software to improve advising capabilities.

The oldest public university in the nation, the University of North Carolina enrolls nearly 225,000 students and encompasses all 16 of North Carolina’s public institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees, as well as the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation’s first public residential high school for academically gifted students. UNC campuses support a broad array of distinguished liberal- arts programs, two medical schools and one teaching hospital, two law schools, a veterinary school, a school of pharmacy, 11 nursing programs, 15 schools of education, five schools of engineering and a renowned arts conservatory.  The UNC Center for Public Television, with its 11-station statewide broadcast network, is also under the University umbrella.