Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez announces she is stepping down
Jan 14, 2026, 10:29 AM | Updated: 12:14 pm
OREM — After nearly seven years at the helm of Utah’s largest university, Astrid Tuminez on Wednesday announced she will be stepping down from her role as president at Utah Valley University after the end of the semester.
“I cried a lot last night, so I’m not crying today. I am leaving UVU,” Tuminez said. “The flow of life always goes on and I hope everybody here remembers what this university is about — that the momentum is tremendous and it goes on without me.”
The announcement came during Tuminez’s annual “State of the University” address. The move will be effective May 1.
As UVU’s seventh president, Tuminez made history as the first woman to serve in the position on a full-time basis.
Beyond being the first woman to lead the university, Tuminez’s rise to her position was seemingly improbable.
Born in a farming village in the Philippine province of Iloilo, Tuminez moved with her parents and siblings to the slums of Iloilo City when she was 2 years old, her parents seeking better educational opportunities for their children.
Her pursuit of education led her to the University of the Philippines and eventually to the United States, where she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Russian literature from Brigham Young University in 1996.
She later earned a master’s degree in Soviet Studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Before taking the reins at UVU, Tuminez was an executive at Microsoft, where she led corporate, external, and legal affairs in Southeast Asia. She also served as vice dean of research at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Tuminez has worked in philanthropy and venture capital in New York City.
In addition to being a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Tuminez serves on the boards of Carnegie Corporation of New York and Cambia Health Solutions, and on the advisory board of Zions Bank.
She is the author of “Russian Nationalism Since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy” and many other publications.
An open-admissions institution, UVU doesn’t require a GPA or standard test scores for admission. In 2025, the school’s enrollment reached 48,670 students, up from 39,931 when Tuminez arrived at the university.
“Our role is to say, ‘Come as you are, and when you’re here, we are not going to leave you to fail or flounder,'” Tuminez said last year.
This story will be updated.
