WSU President Kirk Schulz made his pick for a new Tri-Cities campus chancellor over the winter break, choosing a former Colorado university dean to run the satellite campus.

The new chancellor, Sandra Haynes, a senior administrator at Metropolitan State University of Denver, was one of four outside hire choices, according to a WSU News release.

Haynes was a first-generation, low-income student when she started her educational career, according to a news release from her former institution. Since then, she has earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. in experimental neuropsychology from the same institution.

During her time at MSU, she has served as a deputy provost, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the university’s College of Professional Studies. She has also been a professor in the Department of Human Services there.

Phil Weiler, WSU’s vice president of marketing and communications, said the administration chose Haynes because her previous institution had a similar student profile to WSU Tri-Cities. Another reason she was right for WSU, he said, was her work in building partnerships within her community while at MSU.

Former chancellor Keith Moo-Young served for four years and resigned last May, shortly after WSU Spokane chancellor Lisa Brown stepped down as well. Jeffrey Dennison, the WSU Tri-Cities director of marketing and communication, told the Evergreen that Schulz had used the last year to establish his new mission and they both felt it was time to “pursue new options.”

In 2016, Moo-Young received $364,100 and finished out the last of his four-year contract before leaving.

Haynes will begin as chancellor on March 1.