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By Mikey Lee
Thursday, May 9, 2002

After a decade of service as an officer, Lt. Laura Wilson, '91, was chosen to lead the Stanford Police starting in June as the University's sixth police chief.

"Lt. Wilson embodies the balance of top-notch professional experience and superior people skills that are essential to being a successful police chief at Stanford," said University President John Hennessy.

Wilson succeeds Marvin Moore, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Feb. 10. She will become the first female officer and the first alumna to serve as police chief. She earned a bachelor's in human biology.

"I feel very positively about her appointment," said Marvin Herrington, a retired chief who hired Wilson as a rookie in 1992. "She was an outstanding officer and field sergeant and has always done an outstanding job."

Wilson, 35, and a native of Houston, Texas, worked as an events staff coordinator in the ticket office after graduating in 1991. A year later, she joined the Stanford Police as a deputy sheriff. In 1998, she was promoted to sergeant and last year, she became a lieutenant working in the investigations division.

Jeff Wachtel, special assistant to the president and provost, led the committee that chose Wilson.

According to Wachtel, the committee decided to look internally for a candidate first, and to look in other places if no qualified candidate emerged.

Wilson says her key role is not as an authority figure, but as a service provider.

"Society entrusts law enforcement officers with awesome power and authority," she said. "I believe it is imperative that officers understand the magnitude of this responsibility and remain mindful that we are role models and service providers, not law makers, judges or jurors."

Wilson said that she wants to dedicate her life to the department's excellence, just like Moore and Herrington, who was also 35 years old when he was named police chief.

"I earnestly and wholeheartedly want to follow in their footsteps," she said.