Dr. M.R.C. Greenwood is the President of the University of Hawaii System. She previously was a Professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at UC Davis and an Adjunct Professor of Nutrition and Public Health at UC Berkeley. Dr. Greenwood served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs for the 10-campus University of California (UC) system. She also served as chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, a position she held from July 1996 to March 2004 and holds a UC Santa Cruz appointment as professor of biology.

Prior to her UC Santa Cruz appointments, Greenwood served as dean of graduate studies, vice provost for academic outreach, and professor of biology and internal medicine at UC Davis. In addition, she served as associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1993 to 1995. Previously, Dr. Greenwood taught at Vassar College where she was the John Guy Vassar Professor of Natural Sciences and chair of the Biology Department.

Dr. Greenwood is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and a fellow and past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is chair of the Division of Policy and Global Affairs of the National Research Council and a former chair of the Council's Office of Science and Engineering Policy Advisory Board. She is a member of the board of directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). Among numerous other distinctions, she was a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Science Advisory Board and of the Task Force on the Future of Science Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy. She is a former member of the National Science Board and the Laboratory Operations Board of the U.S. Department of Energy. She was a member of the National Commission on Writing in American's Schools and Colleges, appointed by the College Board.

In the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay region, Greenwood currently is on the board of directors of the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley and the executive advisory board of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group and the California Healthcare Institute. She has served on the boards of the Children's Discovery Museum and the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, and is a member of the advisory board for the Second Harvest Food Bank. In 1998, she was honored as Woman of the Year by the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce.

Greenwood graduated summa cum laude from Vassar College and received her Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University. Her research interests are in developmental cell biology, genetics, physiology, nutrition and science and higher education policy. Her work over the past 25 years, focusing on the genetic causes of obesity, is recognized worldwide. She is the author of numerous scientific publications and presentations.