PHOENIX - Linda Blessing, the Arizona Board of Regents' top administrative official, will retire at the end of June.

Replacing her as executive director is Joel Sideman, board of regents' deputy executive director and legal counsel.

While the move is expected to be seamless, Blessing's colleagues say they will miss her leadership, which helped guide the regents through the most radical period of change in the university system's history.

"Linda Blessing has a 30-year career in state government," said board President Chris Herstam. "She has a tremendous background in public agencies and her talents will be sorely missed."

As executive director Blessing heads the staff that helps the regents carry out their duties. She also works closely with the three university presidents as a member of the Council of Presidents.

During her tenure, Blessing saw the regents nearly double tuition, and launch the Changing Directions initiative, an ambitious overhaul of the three universities' missions.

Linda Blessing has been a blessing (to me) as a university president. - President Peter Likins

"She oversees the ABOR staff that frankly helped us craft the Changing Directions policy," Herstam said.

Herstam said the auditing skills she brought to the position as a CPA and former deputy auditor general, and her leadership abilities as past director of Arizona's Department of Economic Security, helped her guide the board since she took the position in 1999.

UA President Peter Likins credited Blessing's hands-off approach with the three university presidents' successes.

"Linda Blessing has been a blessing (to me) as a university president," Likins said. "She is a leader but a quiet leader who exercises her responsibilities in a personal and very thoughtful way, guiding the three presidents in ways that enable us to work effectively as a team."

Blessing said her departure will allow her to spend time with her family. She and her husband plan to buy a new house to share with Blessing's father.

"I have 30 years of service in public agencies," Blessing said. "So it affords me some time to take a break from employment and focus on the family."

She said overseeing the biggest tuition hikes in university history was a difficult process.

But the regents' ability to raise financial aid for the universities' poorest students by 140 percent ultimately made the move worthwhile.

"I am very proud to have worked through all that with the board ... it wasn't easy," Blessing said.

But Blessing said she is "too young to hang up (her) spurs" and will look for a consulting job in the private industry when she decides to return to work.

Blessing predicts more important changes will be made by the regents in her absence as they carry out their Changing Directions initiative, change state funding methods and work to accommodate Arizona's booming population growth.

"One of the reasons it's hard to leave is because this is a tremendously exciting time right now," Blessing said. "I know there is a wonderful future for these three |universities."

Blessing's successor, Sideman, has served as deputy executive director since 1995 and has been the chief legal adviser to the board since 1991.

Prior to coming to the board, Sideman served as in-house legal counsel for the Roosevelt School District in Phoenix and project director for the Arizona Statewide Legal Services Project.

Blessing said Sideman's familiarity and experience with the regents made him a natural choice for her replacement.

"With Joel, we can just keep moving forward without breaking stride," Blessing said.