From a modest upbringing in Greece to the chancellorship of a major US university, Prof. Linda Katehi’s story is inspirational. In her 2023 book “Higher Ground”, Prof. Katehi does not shy away from describing the challenges she overcame as well as the opposition and backlash that led to her resignation as chancellor.
By Janet G. Hering and Linda Katehi and with Patricia A. Maurice
3 November 2026, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23695846
Today, Linda Katehi is Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering and holds the O'Donnell Foundation Chair at Texas A&M University [1]. One of us (Janet) first met Linda through the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) where she was one of the founding members of the Women of the NAE. In 2022, Linda co-authored a post [2] in the blog series Elephant in the Lab with both of us. That post addressed the potential for women in senior academic leadership to join forces with Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and cited Linda’s 2021 book chapter “Leading While Female: A Personal Journey” [3]. Although we at first missed Linda’s 2023 book, Higher Ground: My American Dreams and Nightmares in the Hidden Halls of Academia [4], it tells a compelling story with important lessons for senior women leaders in STEMM academics.
Education as a path out of poverty
When Linda was just a child, she told her mother that she didn’t want to be poor. Her mother’s response was “Then go to school and be a good student. This is the only thing that can save you [4].” With a natural gift for and love of numbers, Linda studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Athens, one of two women in a class of nearly 200. In 1979, she moved to the US for graduate work in electrical engineering at UCLA, completing her Masters in 1981 and her PhD in 1984. She stayed in the US to pursue her career in academia [5]. She started as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she later served as associate dean of academic affairs and graduate education. She moved to Purdue University as engineering dean and later became the first female provost and vice-chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2009, she became the first female chancellor of the University of California, Davis.
Overcoming adversity as a professor
As an assistant professor, Linda experienced one of the types of challenges that Patricia wrote about in her post on dishonest colleagues [6] – Linda’s lab director tried to usurp her place as Principal Investigator (PI) on a proposal that she had written with no contribution from him. Fortunately, Linda, with the help of a female administrative staff member, was able to circumvent this attempt. Her relationship with her lab director continued to deteriorate even as her career, which included winning a prestigious NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, soared. It came to the point that Linda was about to leave the University of Michigan when she was approached by the new dean of engineering, Charles “Chuck” Vest [7]. Vest intervened to replace the lab director, enabling Linda to stay and flourish in her professorial position. Linda wrote about this experience: “Great leaders do good and then move on to help others. They do not act expecting a return, or a favor, or recognition: They act because it is consistent with their values and their commitment to serving people.”
Support for women in STEMM
Linda’s education and professional career were a series of ‘firsts’. She recognized that her “visible presence, forceful character, and professional success” could be highly polarizing, commenting that her Michigan colleagues were split “into two camps: those who loved me and those who hated me.” Although not explicitly covered in her book, Linda has been vocal in her support of women in STEMM and of the need for diversity. She served as President of the US Women Engineering Proactive Network (WEPAN) and co-founded the group Women of the NAE (WNAE). She acquired a prestigious, multi-million dollar NSF ADVANCE grant (for promoting gender equity at) UC Davis [8]. This funded the creation of the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS), which focused on increasing cultural diversity and supporting Latinas in STEMM careers. Sadly, the ADVANCE program was terminated by the US administration in Spring 2025.
A vision for UC Davis
Linda joined UC Davis as chancellor in August 2009 [8], in the midst of a national recession. She inherited budget cuts, tensions from increasing tuition costs, and decisions made previously both at the campus and UC level. Even so, Linda proposed a 2020 Initiative aiming to increase the international student population from 1.5 to 15%, with the primary motivation of providing students with educational experiences that would enable them to become leaders in a connected world. The plan also included increasing domestic student enrollment and the number of tenure-track faculty. Linda built support for the initiative with faculty and staff leadership groups, eventually obtaining the support of the UC President and Board of Regents. This is an excellent example of how a good leader can see opportunities in challenges.
A chancellor undermined
To Linda’s surprise, the announcement of the 2020 Initiative as a preliminary plan in September 2011 triggered a strong push back. This echoed and built on negative publicity and opposition that had accompanied, or even preceded, Linda’s arrival at UC Davis. At that time, false stories were circulated about Linda’s involvement in a scandal at the University of Illinois, which had happened while she was still at Purdue. There were also complaints about her salary and demands that she donate it to UC Davis students. But with determination and support from her family and UC Davis faculty, Linda found the strength to push through. She wrote, “I hoped the truth would triumph and things would change for the better. It was my first experience that taught me that truth does not matter when it comes to politics.”
In late 2011, Linda faced a series of student protests, including a tent encampment on the ‘quad’, an open space on the campus. This was further complicated by the presence of non-students and professional activists. Although a plan was made for the campus police to remove the tents without force or arrests, some students were pepper sprayed by police. As Linda wrote, “The pepper spray incident… aired out the pathologies, ailments, and inadequacies of leadership – both historic and present – on our campus and in our university system.”
Despite the turmoil that followed the pepper spray incident, Linda referred to those two years as “the most successful in [her] career as chancellor” because UC Davis conducted a successful fund-raising campaign and launched a World Food Center [10].
Further difficulties for Linda arose from her interactions with Janet Napolitano, the President of the UC system who started in 2013. Unlike her predecessor, Napolitano’s experience was not in academics but rather in politics, as Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security and as Governor of Arizona [11]. Linda characterized her as “thirsty for power and self-promotion but rather uninterested in learning about the campuses.” As pointed out in a previous post, having a female ‘boss’ does not necessarily lead to an easier path for a woman in academia [12].
Student protests continued in 2016, along with political support for a “Fire-Katehi” group. The local newspaper continued its campaign against her, and Linda found that her own senior administrative staff were “all very tired with all this business”. Linda came under attack for accepting positions on boards, even though they were approved by the office of the UC president. In April 21016, Linda was called to meet with the UC president, who summarily demanded Linda’s resignation. Since Linda refused to reign immediately, she was placed on administrative leave, and she and her family members were subjected to an investigation. The investigation report was published in August. Linda described the report as “full of low-level gossip and unverifiable rumor”, stating that “everything else that I had considered to be a serious allegation was found false.” This entire incident echoes some of the challenges other senior women academics have faced (as described in a previous post) [13]. Linda resigned as chancellor on 9 August 9, remaining on the UC Davis engineering faculty until her move to Texas A&M in 2019.
Support by family and love of homeland
Throughout her book, Linda writes of the importance of her family’s support. During her doctoral studies and assistant professorship, her mother came to the US to help Linda care for her second child as the family moved from Los Angeles to Michigan. During her struggles at UC Davis, Linda’s mother reminded her of her tenacity and encouraged Linda to persist. Linda’s husband and her adult children also supported her during that period.
Linda writes of her strong attachment to Greece and her Greek community of family and friends. Although she expressed some regret that her “Greek pride” kept her from resigning earlier, Linda followed what she was told was “the recipe for success”: “tell the truth, follow the rules, and work hard”. Linda’s book is a gift of encouragement to other women in senior academic leadership who have also been let down by this “recipe for success”.
Conclusions and questions for further thought
This post was largely written by Janet based on Linda’s book and other sources. Of course, we asked Linda to review the text. Although Patricia has yet to read Linda’s book, she understands how important it is for women to write about our ‘failures’ as well as our ‘successes.’ As Patricia wrote previously, “Women tend to strive for perfection and to blame themselves for extra problems they face in male-dominated fields. Impostor syndrome is real. Just knowing ‘you are not alone’ can give a woman strength and resilience to stand up for herself in the face of adversity and to not blame herself for a broken system.” It is inspirational that Linda Katehi did not simply give up and leave academia. She has continued her enormous service as a professor at Texas A&M, which shows real grit and determination.
To conclude, we asked Linda if she wanted to add anything about her experience. Here is her response:
Higher Ground began on a veranda in Tinos in the summer of 2016, when I returned to Greece to find the girl who once told her mom, "I do not want to be poor." My mother's answer, “Go to school," carried me from a small village on Salamis to leadership positions at several great American universities, and then through a public storm I never imagined. I wrote this book not to settle scores but to understand who these experiences had made me. I wanted to see what ambition costs, what it means to lead as a woman and an immigrant, and what remains when the title is gone. What I found was freedom, inner peace, and contentment in being me. I hope readers, especially young women in Europe and beyond, see that losing what you thought you wanted most can be where your life begins again.
In closing, here are a few questions to stimulate further thought and discussion:
· Had you already heard about the incidents Linda Katehi faced at UC Davis? If so, what was your impression at the time based on your own experiences as a woman in STEMM?
· Have you ever had to deal with organizational leaders who were politicians rather than academics? If so, how did you navigate differences in backgrounds, experiences, and expectations?
· Have you read Higher Ground: My American Dreams and Nightmares in the Hidden Halls of Academia? If so, what did you take away from reading the book?
· Do you also have a belief and hope that ‘the truth will triumph’? If so, how can you prepare yourself to remain optimistic while hopefully heading off disappointments?
Notes, links, and references
[1] https://engineering.tamu.edu/electrical/profiles/katehi-linda.html (Accessed July 23, 2026).
[2] https://elephantinthelab.org/a-call-for-an-alliance-between-female-academic-leaders-and-early-career-researchers-to-improve-the-academic-stem-system/ (Accessed July 23, 2026).
[3] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-85668-7_12 (Accessed July 23, 2026).
[4] Katehi, L. (2023) Higher Ground: My American Dreams and Nightmares in the Hidden Halls of Academia, Herndon, VA: Amplify Publishing, 280 pp.
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Katehi
[6] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/liar-liar-campus-on-fire-how-to-cope-with-dishonest-colleagues
[7] Chuck Vest was MIT president when the famous “MIT Report” on the status of women faculty was released in 1999 (https://wgsvesttribute.mit.edu/history-behind-mit-report/).
[8] https://www.advancejournal.org/post/3150-nsf-advance-a-lifeline-for-women-in-stem
[9] In the UC system, the chancellor is the chief executive officer and primary spokesperson and fundraiser for a specific UC campus.
[10] https://worldfoodcenter.ucdavis.edu
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Napolitano
[12] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/gender-and-bullying-in-the-academic-workplace