Dear colleagues,
With a tremendous outpouring of gratitude and respect, I am sharing the news that Laura Clower, my chief of staff since 2017 and an employee within the University of Illinois System for more than a quarter century, is retiring later this year. A national search for her replacement will begin soon.
Laura has played a significant role in so many of our accomplishments; her contributions are indispensable in transforming ideas into action. She is a trusted adviser, a skilled problem-solver, and a person who highly values diverse perspectives and is adept at navigating paths to shared outcomes. She also keeps attuned to issues that are just starting to crest over the horizon to inform her counsel. She assures me that those attributes will come in handy in the next phase of her life as a grandmother, with another grandchild on the way.
Born and raised in the Southern mountains, Laura earned a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from the University of Virgina, before relocating to the Midwest when she enrolled at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to pursue her law degree.
Following a stint as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Harlington Wood Jr. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Laura entered private practice and became a skilled trial and appellate lawyer handling complex cases throughout central Illinois. In addition to her active law practice, in 1998 Laura joined UIUC’s College of Law faculty as an adjunct professor, teaching trial advocacy, negotiations, and other practice skills to scores of law students over the next six years.
She joined the system on a full-time basis in 2005 as an in-house attorney in the Office of University Counsel. Over the next dozen years, Laura devoted herself to protecting and serving the system’s mission, with a diverse portfolio that encompassed overseeing litigation and administrative hearings and providing advice and counsel to university administrators on a wide range of topics, with special expertise in health law, research integrity, FOIA, and complex employment issues. While serving in this role, Laura earned the trust of many university leaders as someone they could count on not only for legal advice but also for practical wisdom. They found in her a partner they could rely upon to craft workable solutions in even the most challenging circumstances.
Laura joined my leadership team in 2017, when she took on her current role as chief of staff. Her analytical mind, organizational wherewithal, and talent for bringing people together have served the system well in this role. She mobilizes individuals, makes sure necessary resources are in hand, and deftly manages both the day-to-day workload and emerging challenges as they arise. She has been instrumental in advancing many of the most important initiatives undertaken by the system during her tenure, such as the launch of Discovery Partners Institute and the Illinois Innovation Network, our historic response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and our successful effort to garner greater state support for public higher education.
As we begin the process of searching for Laura’s successor, I wish to thank her for all that she has done to support me, my office, and the entire system leadership team. We needed a person with ambition, character, tireless energy, and eternal optimism – in other words, we needed Laura.
Please join me in thanking Laura for her remarkable contributions and wishing her well in retirement.
Tim Killeen
President
University of Illinois System
