The board of trustees praised Edwards during her annual review in April for the 11.2% increase in the number of first-time undergraduate students in fall 2023 that resulted in an increase in the number of enrolled students for the first time since 2015; developing relationships with Premier Health and the Air Force Base that have helped serve the university’s mission, and the improvement in healthy finances since 2020.
Premier and Wright State announced a partnership earlier this year to establish an academic medical center, which would train doctors and do research. Premier Health will pay Wright State $10 million in the first year of the agreement and $15 million in the second to increase the class size at Wright State’s Boonshoft School of Medicine and invest in Wright State’s nursing program.
Board president Tom Gunlock said Edwards works incredibly hard and has been dedicated to the university’s mission.
“We hit a home run with her, and I can’t be more pleased with where the university sits right now,” Gunlock said.
He noted that Edwards came in with not a lot of experience. She became the university’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost in 2018. Edwards had never served as a president of a university before, and she’d only been a provost for about two years.
“There’s not very many people who could take that on without more experience than she had,” Gunlock said. “But she’s done a great job with the relationship side, with the base and Premier, and it’s been going really well.”
Edwards previously donated her bonus and a salary increase to a new scholarship fund for first-generation students. Gunlock said the board strongly encouraged Edwards to take her bonus this time.
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