UNLV President Keith Whitfield resigned Monday night, marking an end to four and a half years that saw him guide the institution’s growth through through a pandemic and deadly shooting.
Whitfield announced his departure at the UNLV Foundation’s annual dinner at the Bellagio’s Grand Ballroom Monday evening. He cited family reasons and said his resignation was effective at the end of the day Monday.
“I know this news — and the timing of it in the middle of the semester and state legislative session — may come as a shock to some of you, but this is a decision I have been considering for a while now,” Whitfield wrote in an email sent to the UNLV community Monday night. “I have shared my decision with our senior leadership team at UNLV and believe they will rise to the occasion with no loss in the momentum we currently enjoy.”
Whitfield joined the university in August 2020. He led UNLV through its first academic year following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a 2023 shooting that killed three professors, all while working to increase the university’s standing as a research university.
In his email, Whitfield said he decided to step away from his job to care for his mother and one of his grandsons, whom he said have health challenges.
Whitfield said a leadership transition was already in progress, and the community would hear from Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Patricia Charlton on Tuesday.
‘Best job I’ve ever had’
Whitfield’s resignation comes a year after the Nevada Board of Regents voted in March 2024 on a new contract that extended his tenure until March 2028.
At the time, UNLV Faculty Senate Chair Bill Robinson, who was a member of Whitfield’s evaluation committee, said the Faculty Senate took a vote, and 30 were in favor of renewing the president’s contract and two were opposed.
Prior to Whitfield’s arrival, the university had gone through six leaders in 13 years.
“This is the best job I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of jobs,” Whitfield told the regents after their vote.
‘Passion for education and service’
The university’s website credits Whitfield’s leadership for what it called “remarkable gains” in its graduation rate and increased overall enrollment.
In his January 2025 state of the university address, Whitfield said the university grew enrollment by nearly 6 percent over the previous year.
In 2021, he introduced Top Tier 2.0, a strategic plan update designed to move UNLV forward on its path to becoming a top public urban research university through focused growth in undergraduate and graduate student success, economic diversification, community engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Under Whitfield’s leadership, the university also grew physically. It expanded its innovation hub, opened a new engineering building and acquired 2,000 acres in the north Las Vegas Valley, which Whitfield said the university would use to create housing and a north campus for graduate students.
Prior to joining UNLV, Whitfield served as a provost, senior vice president of academic affairs, and professor of psychology at Wayne State University in Michigan. He previously served as vice provost for academic affairs at Duke University, where he was also a professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience and co-director of the university’s Center on Biobehavioral Health Disparities Research.
When he spoke to the regents prior to being hired at UNLV, Whitfield said that his father served for 30 years in the U.S. Air Force and had the opportunity to go back to school and become an officer. He said he was inspired by his father’s passion for education and service. He was the university’s first Black president.
Whitfield earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of Santa Fe, a master’s degree in psychology and a doctorate in lifespan developmental psychology from Texas Tech University. He completed postdoctoral training in quantitative genetics at the University of Colorado Boulder.
He has authored or co-authored over 200 publications and has earned over $20 million in funding from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, and the National Science Foundation, according to the university’s website. His current research focuses on the relationship between stress and longevity in African American families.
Dec. 6 shooting
Whitfield was president during the Dec. 6, 2023, shooting that killed professors Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, Jerry Cha-Jan Chang, 64, and Naoko Takemaru, 69. Daraboth “Bot” Rith was shot 10 times but survived.
The shooter, Anthony Polito, 67, was possibly depressed and likely set out on a “suicide mission,” according to a final report released by the Metropolitan Police Department in February.
In the wake of the shooting, the university canceled final exams and told students and faculty they could remain at home through the end of the fall semester.
The university also ramped up mental health support for students and faculty and campus safety. Whitfield reopened Frank and Estella Beam Hall, the scene of the shooting, in August 2024 with increased security measures.
Allegations of antisemitism on campus
Whitfield’s tenure also included what was a difficult time for university presidents nationally, as they grappled with managing the effects of the war in Gaza on their campuses.
In May 2024, Jewish student Corey Gerwaski filed a federal lawsuit against UNLV, the Board of Regents, Whitfield and several pro-Palestinian groups, claiming that he suffered from on-campus antisemitism and discrimination and that faculty members and the administration failed to do anything about it.
It alleged that UNLV violated federal anti-terrorism laws by permitting pro-Palestinian groups to stage protests on campus, acting as a “stand in” for Hamas, an antisemitic terrorist organization held responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
UNLV permitted the Nevadans for Palestinian Liberation group “to march with megaphones, disrupt campus activities, and chant slogans such as ‘From the river to the sea,’” (an anti-Israel slogan) and its participants “have personally verbally assaulted Corey because he wears a kippah,” the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit also accused Whitfield of failing to respond to Gerwaski’s complaints about how the student was treated on campus.
Whitfield filed to dismiss the lawsuit, which is ongoing, according to court documents.
In June 2024, Whitfield refuted earlier assertions that UNLV was considering releasing details about its assets invested in firms with ties to Israel and divesting from them.
“I met with several groups near the end of the spring semester regarding the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza to hear their concerns and perspectives,” Whitfield said in a statement. “Some have criticized me for my open-door policy. And some have made assumptions and misrepresentations in the media or elsewhere.”
“This includes an (incorrect) assertion that UNLV will disclose our investments with any ties to Israel or that we would consider divesting from those investments,” he stated. “We will not. I will not.”
Donor removes funding
Also in May 2024, major donor Kris Engelstad, CEO of The Engelstad Foundation, severed ties with the university due to what she called “adversarial behavior” behind closed doors from university leadership and the dean of the medical school.
Engelstad sent a letter to Whitfield announcing her decision, citing a frayed relationship with past university presidents, apart from Len Jessup, who led the school from 2015 to 2018.
Over the course of the foundation’s long partnership with the school, it contributed about $43.5 million, with a notable $15 million donation for the construction of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine main education building, which opened in 2022.
At the time, Engelstad said she’d like to see Whitfield take a more active role in fundraising and maintaining better relations with donors. When she met with him, Engelstad said, he was not receptive to her concerns or wishes.
“I never see him anywhere in this valley,” she said at the time. “If you’re not going out there and meeting donors, how do you keep the university alive?”
Go Rebels
In Whitfield’s departure, he promised to always be a Rebel.
“Since day one and every day since, I feel blessed to have been afforded the opportunity to lead our great university and be part of the Rebel family,” Whitfield wrote. “It is immensely rewarding to leave knowing that the foundation of UNLV has dramatically improved over the last five years. It has been an honor to serve as your president and be a part of this amazing community.”
Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.