ORONO — Carolyn Dorsey has been appointed as vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and chief of staff for the University of Maine System.
Dorsey, a native of Fort Fairfield who now lives in Caribou, had served in an acting capacity in those same roles since June 2022, fostering the System’s improved communications and collaboration with both university and external partners including Maine employers.
The vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and chief of staff advises Chancellor Dannel Malloy on matters of governance, strategy, policy and organizational effectiveness. She also oversees the System’s internal human resources and statewide workforce development efforts as well as UMS early college programs, through which Maine’s public universities raise aspirations and educational attainment by providing free early college courses to thousands of Maine high school students each year.
Dorsey has also helped to lead the development and implementation of the System’s first strategic plan in nearly two decades. Released last year, the plan provides a roadmap for UMS to advance the state and make Maine’s public universities a national destination for education and employment while strengthening financial sustainability, programming and infrastructure.
Additionally, she co-leads UMS TRANSFORMS, the multi-year strategic initiative funded by $320 million from the Harold Alfond Foundation to expand the System’s capacity to meet the state’s higher education, workforce and economic development needs.
“Throughout my career in Aroostook County, I’ve seen the transformative impact of postsecondary education and research in improving lives, fostering more resilient rural communities and strengthening Maine’s economy,” Dorsey said. “Guided by our new strategic plan and the collaboration enabled by our unified accreditation, the University of Maine System is better positioned than ever before to advance the success of our students and state. I am deeply honored and humbled to have the opportunity to continue to champion that positive change and innovation in this key role.”
Before joining the Chancellor’s Office in 2020 as the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, Dorsey served on the faculty and in academic leadership roles at the University of Maine at Presque Isle since 2014, culminating in her appointment as dean of degree completion and workforce development programming.
While at UMPI, Dorsey and President Ray Rice jointly developed the university’s competency-based online education program, YourPace, which launched in the fall of 2017 and has led to a near-doubling of that rural university’s enrollment over the last five years thanks to its accessibility, affordability and relevance to busy working adults looking to complete a door-opening degree. She remains a tenured associate professor of business management at that university.
Dorsey earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Husson University, where she also previously taught. She is currently finishing her doctorate through the University of Maine.
This year, Dorsey was appointed by Gov. Janet Mills and confirmed by the Maine Senate to serve on the Loring Development Authority Board. Earlier in her career, she served as executive director of the Caribou Development Corporation and led Caribou’s Office of Economic and Community Development during the closure of Loring Air Force Base.
