Professor Shearer West joined the University of Leeds on 1 November 2024 as its fourteenth Vice-Chancellor and President.
An expert in Art History, Professor West has held influential leadership roles in universities and higher education. She obtained her BA degree in Art History and English at the College of William and Mary in Virginia in the United States of America, and her PhD in Art History at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Professor West was awarded a CBE in the 2021 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to higher education.
Professor West is a member of the Universities UK Board to help deliver its mission to maximise the higher education sector’s positive impact for staff, students and the public, through the highest quality teaching, research and scholarship. She is also a board member and deputy chair of the Russell Group, which provides strategic advice, policy development and representation for the UK’s 24 leading research-intensive universities.
Professor West has served in numerous international roles, including acting as the main panel chair for the national research assessment exercise for Humanities in Norway and serving on the steering group to introduce impact into the Excellence in Research (ERA) exercise in Australia.
She is former Chair of the Universitas 21 global network of universities and is currently a board member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and a member of the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong.
She has also represented the UK on the Science Europe Humanities Scientific Committee and has been a jurist for the Spinoza and Gravitation Prizes in the Netherlands and the Odysseus and Solvay Prizes in Belgium.