American University President to Step Down After the Coming School Year

Sylvia M. Burwell came to the presidency of American University six years ago with a decidedly unusual résumé. Unlike most of her peers in academia, she had never been a dean, a provost or even a professor. She did not have a master’s, PhD or other advanced degree. Yet Burwell hardly seemed inexperienced. What she brought to AU in abundance was deep knowledge of the ways of Washington as a former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and former U.S. secretary of health and human services in the Obama administration.