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About the Provost

Peggy Agouris

Peggy Agouris became William & Mary's sixth provost on July 1, 2019. As the university's chief academic officer, Peggy is responsible for all academic and research programs, academic budgets, institutional planning, space allocation and faculty development.

Leadership Strategy

As the chief academic officer, Provost Agouris establishes strategic direction and pursues progress for William & Mary in the following areas:

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Cultivate a Relevant, Vibrant Curriculum Conscious of the changing needs of society, the job market and our students, the provost is committed to ensuring that William & Mary’s curriculum reflects and addresses the greatest needs of the day and continues to attract and retain excellent students and faculty now and into the future. By supporting the collaborative work of our students, faculty, and staff across the diverse curriculum, she strives to empower William & Mary to excel in shaping and contributing to our ever-evolving workforce and world.

Strengthen Research, Scholarship & Education Attentive to the university’s R2 Carnegie Classification as a doctoral university with high research activity, the provost encourages the pursuit of cutting-edge basic and applied research and scholarship by William & Mary's faculty and students. Achievement in research and scholarship will leverage and enhance William & Mary’s success and standing in undergraduate and graduate education nationally.

Integrate Data, internal and external, to Inform Planning and Decision-making In today’s rapidly changing and complex world data is critical to planning and decision-making. The provost seeks to identify relevant and timely data to bring into campus conversations in order to create a common understanding of William & Mary’s opportunities and challenges.

Pursue Strategic Initiatives To create new opportunities for students, faculty and staff into the future, the provost pursues new ventures that align with William & Mary’s strengths and objectives. These new ventures will expand William & Mary’s reach and impact programmatically as well as diversify the university's revenue streams through creative partnerships across sectors such as education, government and business.

Foster a Culture of Well-Being, Transparency & Inclusion Collaboration, communication, transparency, and mutual respect are key components of the provost’s leadership style. Seeking active engagement with a diverse range of faculty, students and staff, the provost strives to co-create an academic culture that is high quality while also being supportive of one another’s well-being and success.

Biography

Originally from Athens, Greece, Peggy received her engineering degree from the National Technical University of Athens, and her master’s and doctoral degrees from The Ohio State University. As an undergraduate, she also received a degree in classical music and piano from the Greek Conservatory. Before joining William & Mary she served at George Mason as dean of the College of Science, chair of the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science and as a professor of remote sensing and spatial informatics. Before joining the faculty of George Mason, Peggy worked for the University of Maine as an assistant professor and then associate professor in the now named School of Computing and Information Science, and as a postdoctoral research associate for the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. She has also worked with the private sector, serving as principal investigator on technology transfer projects. As a scholar, Peggy has published more than 100 papers in numerous academic outlets, with more than 2,600 citations to date.

At George Mason, Peggy oversaw one of the university’s most active research units. In 2018 alone, the College of Science accounted for almost a third of George Mason’s total research expenditures and nearly half of its indirect revenue. The college included 13 departments and programs, 20 research centers and nearly 80 degree programs. In 2017, the College of Science led George Mason’s largest research proposal to date, which was funded by the federal government with an initial budget of $40 million. During her tenure as dean, Peggy was also credited with creating new cross-cutting academic programs, increasing the diversity of the faculty body by almost 40 percent and assembling a diverse leadership team for her college comprising more than 60 percent women and under-represented populations.

Peggy and her husband, Tony, teenage daughter, Chloe, and the family’s four cats reside in Williamsburg.