Maria Cuzzo is the Interim Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and has been for a few months since previous chancellor Renee Wachter became the interim president of the UW system.
Once that period ends, Cuzzo explained, her intention is that her service as interim chancellor will end, too. Unlike so many that take on interim roles, Cuzzo isn’t looking to parlay a temporary position into a long-term one. “I intend to be an active emeriti and definitely support whatever programming I can once I’ve gotten the customary break from the institution, but I do intend for it to be a different chapter in my life,” she said of her future plans.
Her career at UWS, even if she had never achieved the current status she holds, is a long and distinguished one, and her resume certainly goes a long way in explaining why Wachter is comfortable with Cuzzo running the ship while she’s away. When she thinks back, the trail of her career starts in childhood.
“I grew up in central Minnesota in a very political family,” Cuzzo recalled. “We were very engaged with politics, and particularly in the DFL in Minnesota. And I recall it clearly, just like yesterday: Senator Hubert Humphrey came to visit my parents. He looked at me and said ‘What are your goals about your education?’ Now, I’m 11. But I knew I loved school. Even then, I loved learning. I said that I’d like to learn and go as far as I can. So then he talked about the PhD as the ultimate achievement in education, and that I should keep that in mind.”
It’s not many kids who can say the advice of a senator and future vice president directly influenced their path in life, but Cuzzo indeed grew up to get her PhD in the mid-’90s, after a career as a lawyer that had been encouraged by her father, a judge. “Even though I wanted to be a practicing lawyer, which I was, I knew I wanted to end up teaching in college,” she said.
After blazing a trail that included a stint as the only female lawyer in Superior, Cuzzo landed at UWS. “They were the ones that gave me the opportunity to teach one class adjunct, which I loved,” she said.
Step by step, she built up her educational abilities, until she finally became the permanent assistant professor of legal studies and helped to create a new program at the college. “I lived through all of that and finally got my dream. I spent 25 truly glorious years teaching and being an academic.”
“Working with students, helping people grow, building skills, being creative, finding out how to connect knowledge and ideas with student dreams – those 25 years were golden,” Cuzzo said.
Today, she’s just enjoying the administrative side of the school, after seven years as provost and now as interim chancellor. “I’ve had the opportunity now to shape the context within which students and faculty and staff can live and do really effective, beautiful things just like I got to do. And now, I’m doing a loving duty to this campus that’s given me so much. I feel really honored to do this for the campus and the community.”
