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Dr. Martha Saunders

  • President, University of West Florida

Biography

Dr. Martha Saunders is an accomplished University president with over 30 years of experience in higher education. She is recognized as an academic expert in public relations and crisis communication, earning numerous awards including two coveted Silver Anvils from the Public Relations Society of America. 

She has paved the way for women assuming leadership roles in higher education. She was the first female chancellor for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and then led the University of Southern Mississippi as its first female president, before returning to UWF as provost. At UWF, she served as executive vice president, assuming the role of chief operating officer in addition to chief academic officer and vice president for the Division of Academic Affairs before her inauguration as president in 2017.

Under her leadership, the University of West Florida has transformed into a first-choice institution. She led UWF to its status as a top-performing public university in the Florida Board of Governors performance-based funding metrics for three consecutive years. The University also ranks among the top 15 public regional institutions in the South by U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges and is consistently named a “Great College to Work For” by ModernThink and featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

She established the state’s first doctoral program in intelligent systems and robotics in partnership with the Florida Institute of Human Machine Cognition. She also oversaw the development of Florida’s first bachelor’s in cybersecurity degree program designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity by the National Security Agency and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

Dr. Saunders’ vision is for UWF to grow beyond its beginnings as a regional comprehensive university and receive recognition as a leader in innovation and cutting-edge academic programs. 

As an entrepreneurial leader, Dr. Saunders is passionate about creating innovative solutions for the dynamic challenges facing higher education. As a change maker, she drives action behind these solutions, propelling higher education into the future.