About Jay B. Silveria
Retired Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria, president of the University of Arkansas System, will become the 14th president of Purdue University following his unanimous election by Purdue’s Board of Trustees on Nov. 5, 2026. Silveria will succeed Mitch Daniels effective Feb. 1, 2027.
Silveria, who has spent his career developing people, building organizations and connecting institutional missions to results, emerged from a diverse field of qualified candidates. A retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general, he has served as president of the University of Arkansas System since January 2025. Previously, he served as associate vice president and executive director of Texas A&M University and the Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington, D.C. (2020-24), and as superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy (2017-20).
The University of Arkansas System, which enrolls more than 80,000 students and employs over 30,000 people, includes a flagship land-grant top-tier research university, medical sciences campus, regional universities, community colleges, law school, and agricultural and other public-service divisions. Silveria’s work there has required understanding the distinct missions of individual institutions while advancing shared goals. The system’s current strategic pillars emphasize access, student success, innovation and discovery, responsible stewardship, statewide responsiveness, and collaboration.
At Texas A&M University, Silveria was tasked with launching an urban graduate school educational enterprise in the heart of the nation’s capital, which required coordination among academic leadership, faculty, administrators, students and external partners. The Bush School of Government and Public Service has successfully connected students with the institutions, practitioners and policy debates relevant to their studies.
As superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Silveria led an educational institution with an integrated mission: academic instruction, military preparation, athletics and character development. His time there provided a meaningful foundation for understanding how educational institutions can align their culture, resources and programs around student development, and he gained an appreciation for the responsibility of universities to prepare graduates for contributory roles in society.
During his military career, Silveria served as deputy commander, Combined Air Force Component, U.S. Central Command, Southwest Asia, where he was responsible for the command and control of air operations in a 20-nation area and where key operations Resolute Support in Afghanistan and Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria were executed under his command. He has served as commander, U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and vice commander, 14th Air Force at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, as well as director, Security Assistance in the Office of Security Cooperation-Baghdad, Iraq. Silveria has commanded a fighter wing, an air operations center and a fighter squadron, and among his many military decorations, he earned a Distinguished Service Medal and a Bronze Star, along with multiple Air Medals.
Silveria grew up in an Air Force family and is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He completed undergraduate pilot training in 1986. He is a command pilot with more than 3,900 hours in the T-37, T-38, F-15C/E, HH-60 and F-35A aircraft. He has flown combat missions over the Balkans and Iraq.
Silveria earned a master’s degree in social science from Syracuse University and master’s degrees from Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and the National War College at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C.