UHCL welcomes Ira K. Blake as fifth university president
July 28, 2017 | UHCL Staff
On Tuesday, Aug.1, University of Houston-Clear Lake makes history when it welcomes
Ira K. Blake as the university’s fifth president - the first female and first African-American
to serve in the role.
Blake’s early action items are meeting university faculty, staff and community friends,
as well as expanding educational opportunities for the Houston area.
“My first priority is to continue UHCL’s evolution into a comprehensive four-year
university, mission-focused on the delivery of high-quality educational experiences
by outstanding faculty as we prepare all students for meaningful roles and satisfying
careers in the Houston-Galveston metropolitan region, state, nation and beyond,” said
Blake.
Blake joins the university after having served as provost and senior vice president
for Academic Affairs at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania since 2009. Prior to
serving at Bloomsburg, Blake was associate vice chancellor for academic and student
affairs for Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education at Dixon University Center
as well as assistant to the president for public engagement at Kutztown University.
She holds a doctorate and master’s degree in developmental psychology from Columbia
University and a second master’s degree in educational psychology from San Francisco
State University. Blake received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from George Washington
University.
“UHCL is a university on the rise and Dr. Blake has the necessary vision to build
on our success,” said University of Houston System Chancellor Renu Khator shortly
after announcing Blake as the sole finalist for the role of UHCL president.
Blake says that one of her overriding objectives is to be inclusive, to listen to
all voices and to engage members of the UHCL community.
As a first-generation college student in a family of nine children, Blake says she
understands the importance of a college education for all. She credits her sharecropper
father and domestic homemaker mother with instilling the confidence in her as well
as her siblings that they could do anything they desired.
“My parents always told us to ‘own where you come from’ and to know that it doesn’t
prevent you from ending up anywhere you want to be,” said Blake.
She noted that having the desire is key, but having the financial support to realize
the dream is often difficult.
“We need to look for additional ways to fund education to assure that students can
attend the university and can receive a high-quality educational experience,” she
said when discussing affordability as one of the challenges in higher education.
Blake and her late husband raised three children who now live throughout the U.S.
She now embraces her role as grandmother to six.
UHCL began welcoming students in 1974 as an upper-level university and has evolved
into a four-year university offering more than 80 undergraduate and graduate degree
programs as well as three doctoral programs. During the spring, the university broke
ground on three buildings including the STEM and Classroom Building and Recreation
and Wellness Center at UHCL, and the Health Sciences and Classroom Building at UHCL
Pearland Campus.
Find out more about UHCL by visiting http://www.uhcl.edu.
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