Northwestern announces appointments in the Office of the Provost

Provost Jonathan Holloway announced today (Dec. 4) two key appointments in the Office of the Provost, naming Mark Francis to be associate provost for operations and facilities and Sarah Wake as associate vice President for equity.

Mark Francis

Mark Francis has been appointed associate provost for operations and facilities at Northwestern, effective Jan. 15, 2019. 

Currently, Francis serves as vice president for global real estate at PepsiCo. In that role, he leads development and implementation of the company’s global real estate strategy. 

Before PepsiCo, Francis served as major project planner at Yale University. In that position, his responsibilities included master planning, programming, design and construction quality for Yale’s residential colleges, academic facilities and research laboratories, and libraries and museums.In addition, he served as project director for all facets of the creation for the Yale-NUS College campus in Singapore. 

As associate provost, Francis will lead the development of University space/facilities plans that will converge with institutional strategic priorities and address space/facilities issues that arise in support of the University’s academic mission, including new University construction, renovation and allocation of space. 

He will also oversee business operations within the Office of the Provost. He succeeds Jean Shedd, who retired from the University in June. 

Sarah Wake

Effective Oct. 1, 2018, Sarah Wake has been appointed permanent associate vice president for equity. She has served as interim associate vice president since April and joined the University in February 2017 as associate general counsel in the Office of General Counsel. 

As associate vice president for equity, Wake leads Northwestern’s Office of Equity, which responds to reports of discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct, provides accommodations to faculty and staff with disabilities, provides training to students, faculty and staff, and develops the University’s affirmative action programs. 

Prior to joining Northwestern, she worked at the University of Chicago as associate provost and director of the Office for Equal Opportunity Programs, Title IX coordinator for the University, Americans With Disabilities Act coordinator and affirmative action officer. 

Wake previously served as the director of the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX coordinator at the University of Notre Dame. 

She will continue to maintain a concurrent appointment as associate general counsel.

These changes continue to support the Office of the Provost’s ongoing efforts to enhance levels of service of, and support for, the University’s academic mission.