First lady of PSU

She is many things: an architect, a mother and a “laid back East Coast” outdoorswoman. But Alice Wiewel is also the wife of new university President Wim Wiewel, and she is excited to step into this new role and into a new city all the way across the country.  

Wiewel was born in the Netherlands, but she has spent most of her life in the United States. Her father is Dutch, and her mother is Indonesian. After a visit to Europe at the age of 16 and seeing all the buildings there, she decided to go into architecture.

With her love of art and coming from a family of scientists—her father is a physicist and her mother is a chemist—she saw a career that would be “a nice blend of those two aspects,” Wiewel said.

Wiewel went on to work as an architect in a private firm for about 15 years. She then brought her architectural expertise to Georgetown University as director of facilities and planning, where she also got her MBA in architecture in 2004. Wiewel finds working in the university environment anything but dull.

“You work with all different building types, all different client types. You rarely do the same thing twice,” Wiewel said.

The most rewarding thing about working at a university is interacting with the interesting and intelligent people found in a college environment, Wiewel said.

“It’s a wonderful thing to work in a university because these are people that are driven and passionate about what they do,” she said.

When her husband of three years, Wim Wiewel, accepted the job as president of Portland State, the couple along with two of her children, Sam and Kelly, made the move from Maryland to Oregon. She took a job similar to her job at Georgetown with the Oregon University System as director of capital planning in October.

“She’s a great addition to the chancellor’s office team. She brings an incredibly diverse background and experience to the chancellor’s office. Everyone enjoys working with her,” said Diane Saunders, director of communications for OUS.

Wiewel’s major task as new director of capital planning is coordinating the Climate Action Plan, which assesses how efficiently public Oregon campuses, PSU included, are keeping pollution to a minimum.

“The overall goal of the system is to get greenhouse emission down,” Wiewel said. “The biggest cause of greenhouse emissions for campuses is the physical operations.”

According to Wiewel, the challenge is that most campuses have their own power plants, which emit huge amounts of pollutants. She also said that the number of students driving cars to campus especially in more rural towns is a significant culprit of greenhouse gases.

Since the couple moved to Oregon, Wiewel has been impressed with Portland’s commitment to sustainability.

“I don’t think Portland people truly appreciate is how advanced you are in the whole area of sustainability. I think it’s because it’s so deep in the way you do things,” Wiewel said. “It’s going to make these shifts that have to happen in the way we do things much easier here than anywhere else.”

Another hat that Wiewel wears is as PSU’s first lady. Wiewel said that along with her husband being “a public face of the school, I feel that I am as well.”

President Wiewel says that his wife, who he affectionately described as “very charming, smart, enthusiastic, supportive and beautiful,” is a significant emotional support along with being co-representative of the campus.

Mentioning that the last two presidents were not married at the time of their presidency, “I don’t know how they managed it,” President Wiewel said.

“She’s a huge part about what makes me enjoy this job and makes me do a good job,” he said.

Alice Wiewel also enjoys hiking and bicycling. She also enjoys cooking and going to farmer’s markets.

“The big challenge for me is balance. Having balance in my family life, and work life, and PSU life,” Wiewel said. “For me, family is first. Making sure that my kids are well situated and having the things that they need. That’s my first priority.”