UMass Chancellor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco to Step Down

UMass Boston Chancellor MARCELO SUÁREZ-OROZCO plans to step down Feb. 1, 2027, after nearly seven years leading the bayside campus. He told the Dorchester Reporter this week that the time was right for him to depart the top role because "the campus is stabilized in ways that we haven't been for a long, long, long time." A dean at the University of California Los Angeles when he was named as the sole finalist for the UMass Boston presidency in January 2020, Suárez-Orozco quickly became a regular partner to state and local government officials, especially around global climate change and resilience. Under his leadership, UMass Boston says it has "strengthened its standing as the region's leading public research university, dedicated to holistic student success, deep community engagement, and impactful research that addresses complex urban challenges, health disparities, and the urgent issue of our time—building climate resilience." Also this week, Massasoit Community College Interim President BILL MITCHELL announced that he will retire at the end of the 2026–2027 academic year, capping off his decades-long career in higher education at an institution he first entered as a student in 1980. The Brockton native has served as interim president since April 2024. As a student in the 1980s, Mitchell also pursued a professional baseball career in the St. Louis Cardinals system, the college said in a press release, and eventually earned an undergraduate degree from Bridgewater State University. In 1994, he went to work for UMass Dartmouth as assistant controller and eventually became associate vice chancellor for financial services before returning to Massasoit in 2012 as vice president for administration and CFO. He served as interim president from September 2017 through July 2018 before stepping back into that role in April 2024.