A search committee named a lone finalist for the UMass Boston chancellor position Tuesday after months of searching and interviews with 11 potential candidates. The committee unanimously voted to recommend Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, a dean and professor at the University of California Los Angeles, to fill the chancellorship.

Norm Peters, the search committee's chair, described Suarez-Orozco as an "outstanding candidate." After considering a range of options, he said, the committee decided there was only one candidate who "truly rises to the top." It was not immediately clear whether Suarez-Orozco will participate in a campus visit.

UMass Boston has not had a permanent chief since June 2017, when longtime Chancellor Keith Motley stepped down. Barry Mills served as interim chancellor for about a year, and in May 2018 during the first attempt to find a permanent chancellor, all three finalists withdrew after campus visits. Katherine Newman, formerly UMass's senior vice president for academic affairs, has served as interim chancellor since that point.