Washington After an eight-year stint as Health and Human Services secretary, Donna Shalala will leave this month to become the president of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

Shalala, who held her Cabinet position during both of President Clinton's terms in office, oversaw 61,000 employees in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and welfare and child care programs.

Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1988 to 1993, she said she looked forward to working once again in the academic world. "I welcome the opportunity to get out of government and get back to higher education," Shalala said.