Influential Women
of Houston
Renu Khator
University of Houston
Chancellor, University of Houston System President, University of Houston
She is an immigrant, a transplant who brought with her an ambition to leave the city more prosperous, and more powerful, than when she found it.
Renu Khator is shaping the university Houston needs
Renu Khator, the Chancellor of the University of Houston System and President of the University of Houston, didn’t know much about Houston when she moved here in 2008. Taking her advanced degrees from Purdue University in Indiana and serving for 22 years as Provost and Senior Vice President of the University of South Florida in Tampa, she was unfamiliar with the quirks of what she describes as Houston’s “curious mixture.” As she and her husband, Suresh, considered a move to the city, there was some trepidation. “The traffic and sheer size were a little intimidating at first,” she says. “But Houstonians are so friendly and embracing, we felt at home almost immediately.”
by Allyn West
students. She has stewarded UH’s rise, both academically and athletically, into national prominence. And this has, in turn, impacted the city. “When I first arrived, I asked the public and community leaders what they wanted from UH and the response was, ‘We need a nationally recognized public university,’” she says. “Earning Tier One status, acquiring a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, developing a competitive athletics program, increasing student residence on campus, adding several state-of-the-art buildings, enhancing our faculty and significantly upgrading our research capacity – that has all been done to become the kind of university Houston needs.”
Khator recognizes that Houston’s needs are many. “We face the basic challenges any major metropolis does – providing an acceptable level of public services It should be no surprise that to an increasing population Khator took to Houston, as and expanding municipality; Houston has taken to her. She maintaining a thriving, diversified found that her German Shepherd, economy to generate a reliable tax Sasha, loves to take walks around base that will fund such increases; Hermann Park, which is near the On the whole, Houston struck and preserving and improving family’s home in Broadacres. She her with its “unique energy overall quality of life for the found restaurants she loves – Uchi, and character.” community, like educational Underbelly, Kiran’s, and Indika resources and cultural amenities.” are at the top of her list. (Though UH, Khator believes, can play a vital role in meeting some of when she feels “nostalgic,” she says, she likes Himalaya or these needs. She sees the fates of the city and the university Maharaja Bhog). On the whole, Houston struck her with its as intertwined. A recently launched capital campaign called “unique energy and character.” “Here, We Go” aims to raise $1 billion for UH’s continued rise. It is, she says, “an investment in Houston.” Among Most attractive of all was the city’s diversity. “For me, other ends, that campaign would support broader public there’s no single place that’s perfectly ‘Houston,’” she says, health initiatives, fund the establishment of a College of “but the Texas Medical Center, the Ship Channel, NASA, the Arts, and broaden a program that reaches out into even the Galleria, all reflect important aspects of our city.” communities, such as the Third Ward, near campus. In some ways, Khator herself reflects an important aspect “Our city has continued to grow and prosper, showing of the city. She is an immigrant, a transplant who brought tremendous economic resiliency and becoming a model of with her an ambition to leave the city more prosperous, and diversity,” Khator says. “And the University of Houston more powerful, than when she found it. With her dual titles, has supported and encouraged that.” she is responsible for the education of more than 71,000