Regents on Monday named Susan Ballabina the sole finalist for president of Texas A&M University, putting the system’s top deputy in line to lead the flagship campus after a year of upheaval. The board voted 8-0 after about 30 minutes in closed session, with Regent David C. Baggett absent.
Ballabina, who currently serves as executive vice chancellor for the Texas A&M University System, now must wait 21 days under state law before the hire can become official. If that happens, she would take charge of a university that enrolled 72,289 students in fall 2025.
Her selection lands at a moment when Texas A&M has been looking for stability. The university has been through repeated leadership turmoil since 2023, when M. Katherine Banks resigned after the failed hiring of Kathleen McElroy, an experienced Black journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, to revive the school’s journalism program. The fallout from that episode lingered, and Mark A. Welsh III’s downfall followed in September 2025 after a controversy over a discussion of gender identity in a children’s literature course.
Ballabina is not a newcomer to the system or to the pressures surrounding it. She has worked in Texas A&M for more than three decades, held senior leadership roles at both the university and Texas A&M AgriLife, and previously served as chief of staff to Welsh. She also initially sat on the presidential search committee before recusing herself when she decided to apply for the job herself.
Her career has stretched across administration, partnerships and emergency response. Ballabina helped cultivate projects such as the Aplin Center, a new campus hub for hospitality, retail and food-and-nutrition education, and she helped coordinate statewide disaster recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Tarleton State University, a master’s degree from Stephen F. Austin State University and a doctorate in public affairs from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Board chairman Jay Graham said regents know Ballabina well and have seen her steady leadership and sound judgment firsthand. He also said she understands what makes Texas A&M unique, including its values, its traditions and its duty to serve Texas. Ballabina said she was honored by the trust and confidence of the Board of Regents and Chancellor Glenn Hegar.
The choice reflects a system that has become more assertive in the wake of political fights over classroom content and institutional control. Texas A&M’s rules restrict how race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity can be discussed in class, and the search unfolded as regents took a more direct role in responding to controversy and shaping what can be taught under new state laws. Ballabina’s elevation, if finalized after the waiting period, would place a longtime insider in charge of the state’s largest public university at a moment when the board appears determined to keep a tight hand on the institution’s future.
