The Nevada Board of Regents has appointed UNLV Honors College Dean Marta Meana, a longtime UNLV professor and award-winning psychology scholar, to serve as acting president of the university and replace departing President Len Jessup.

The appointment came during a special board meeting Monday, after about a half an hour of public comment praising her work. Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Thom Reilly had recommended Meana after hosting 11 forums on the topic. Meana will serve as acting president while a national search for a permanent president is underway.

“I am honored and humbled by the trust you have placed in me,” Meana said in a short speech after all but one regent voted in her favor. “Together there is so much we can accomplish. I look forward to working closely with you on our common goal of making higher education the engine for economic and cultural prosperity in the region.”

Reilly said system administrators will take the pulse of the campus in the fall, potentially beginning a national search for a permanent president at that point. That process would take about a year, although Reilly didn’t want to set a concrete timeline for when a permanent president would be in place.

Meana was named permanent head of the Honors College in 2014. She joined the school’s psychology department in 1997 and is a researcher in the fields of women’s health and human sexuality.

According to her official biography, Meana earned her Ph.D. in psychology in 1996 from McGill University in Montreal and did a post-doctoral research fellowship in women’s health at the University of Toronto. She has been president of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research and held editorial roles for several journals focused on sexuality research.

Reilly said Meana has experience at a university-wide level after serving as a cabinet-level adviser to former UNLV President Neal Smatresk. He also noted that Honors College enrollment has tripled under her leadership, and said she often personally convinces Nevada high schoolers to stay in town and get their education through UNLV.

“I’m definitely confident she’s the right person to lead the university while we begin a national search,” he said, adding that “she has broad experience and understanding of the importance of working with the philanthropic community.”

Born in Madrid, Meana is the third Hispanic candidate chosen to lead a Nevada college or university in the last month. The new presidents of Western Nevada College and the College of Southern Nevada are Latino.

Jessup, who became president in early 2015, announced in April that he would be leaving UNLV at the end of the school year to be president of Claremont Graduate University. He said “personal and professional” attacks from Reilly and members of the Board of Regents prompted his departure. Reilly acknowledged after the announcement that he had “significant concerns about operational issues” at UNLV.

One major flashpoint was that after receiving a negative job review, Jessup signed a contract that made a $14 million donation to the UNLV Medical School building contingent on him staying for several years past his current contract date. The donation has since been revoked, but the donor has argued there was nothing untoward about the arrangement.

Regent J.T. Moran, who has aligned with members of the philanthropic community who strongly defend Jessup and are upset that he was pressured to leave, was the only regent to oppose Meana’s appointment. He said the board wasn’t included enough in the process of choosing the acting president candidate and said that was inappropriate.

“My vote is against the process of how we got here,” he said.

He asked a series of questions of Meana, including whether she’d preserve the leadership team that Jessup had (she said she had no intention of not retaining them), whether she thinks the medical school building should be built with only public money or also private gifts and “thought” (she said it should involve school and community collaboration), and whether she was more qualified for the role than Jessup.

Legal counsel intervened in the latter question, saying there was no waiver from Jessup and because of that, the Open Meeting Law wouldn’t allow a discussion of him at the meeting.