IOWA CITY Iowa

Sally Mason wasn't brought up around higher education, but she plans to make herself right at home as the University of Iowa's new president.

"I already feel that I am part of this University of Iowa community," the 57-year-old Mason said after the state Board of Regents announced her selection on Thursday.

Mason, a biology professor and provost at Purdue University, has impressive credentials, including a Ph.D. in cellular, molecular and developmental biology from the University of Arizona. But, what may be most impressive about her rise through academia is that she was the first in her family to earn a college degree.

"Education has changed my life, it's changed your lives, and it will change the lives of countless more in the future, and it will change the future of our state" she said.

Speaking at a news conference, she noted that her father came to America from Czechoslovakia as a child and didn't finish the eighth grade. Her mother didn't finish high school.

"And now, I'm president of one of the world's great universities," she said.

Her parents, she said, would have been proud of her achievement, and "they would also be pretty amazed."

Having overcome personal odds, Mason was eager to set high goals for the University of Iowa.

"No matter how good we are, we can always do better, we can build higher," she said.

Mason's former colleagues praised her as a personable but forceful leader.

"The first thing you notice about her is her intelligence. You also notice that she's very personable, and she thinks very well on her feet," said Robert Weaver, the associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas. Mason served as dean of the college beginning in 1995 before becoming the first woman provost at Purdue in 2001.

"If you relate well to people, that's a big advantage for an administrator," Weaver said.

Mason was called a "great facilitator" by Dennis Savaiano, the dean of consumer and family sciences at West Lafayette, Ind.-based Purdue.