UNH President Elizabeth S. Chilton

Elizabeth S. Chilton became the University of New Hampshire’s 21st president in July of 2024, bringing with her a passion for public higher education, scholarly curiosity, and a deep commitment to fostering a university community where knowledge and innovation thrive in service of our state and beyond. 

Before coming to UNH, President Chilton served as the inaugural chancellor of Washington State University’s Pullman campus and as the WSU system’s provost and executive vice president. In those roles, she championed system and campus-wide strategic planning, led innovative hiring and equity initiatives, and helped strengthen the academic and research mission across a six-campus system. 

A first-generation college student, President Chilton knows first-hand the transformative power of education. She earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University at Albany, SUNY, before going on to complete her master’s and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her career has taken her from Harvard University to UMass Amherst to Binghamton University, and finally to WSU – interweaving her dedication to teaching, research, and leadership along her professional journey. 

An accomplished archaeologist, she has spent her academic career studying the pre-colonial archaeology of Northeast North America and is the author of dozens of scholarly publications. She is an avid hiker, kayaker, and canoeist and a devoted choral singer. Her husband, Michael Sugerman, is also an archaeologist specializing in ancient trade and exchange in the Mediterranean region. They have an adult son and three large and lively dogs.