Appointment of Dr. Mary Beth Walker as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

March 20, 2019

Dear Colleagues:
 
I am pleased to announce Dr. Mary Beth Walker has been appointed Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Walker brings a wealth of experience implementing high-impact practices and helping to eliminate achievement gaps. Dr. Walker has the understanding and skill set to help us advance our student success initiatives and to collaborate with faculty, academic staff and campus leadership to prepare students to face the challenges of today and tomorrow. She is a champion of inclusive excellence, research and innovation. Dr. Walker will begin her appointment July 1, 2019.

Since January of this year, Dr. Walker has been serving as Interim President of Georgia Gwinnett College, which is part of the Georgia State System. Before her appointment as interim president, since 2017 she served as Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Innovations at Georgia State University, where she has served in successive leadership and academic roles, including Dean of the School of Policy Studies and Chair of the Department of Economics. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Rice University. As an economist, her research interests center on quantitative evaluation of policy, including tax policy and some labor market issues. In recent years, she has focused her research efforts on education economics. I am confident that her experience and record of leadership, scholarship and collaboration will greatly benefit CSUN.
 
Dr. Walker was selected following a rigorous national search and I would like to thank the search committee for its successful effort: Colin Donahue, Vice President for Administration and Finance, who chaired the committee; Shereazad Jimmy Gandhi, Professor of Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management; Beverly Ntagu, President, Associated Students; Judy Schmidt-Levy, Staff Psychologist, Counseling Services; Mary-Patricia Stein, Faculty President; Farrell Webb, Dean, College of Health and Human Development; and Jeffrey Wiegley, Professor of Computer Science.

I also want to thank Dr. Stella Theodoulou for serving as Interim Provost during this transition. I am grateful for the strong leadership she provided to Academic Affairs and the university during this time, complementing an already stellar record in service to the university as a dean, administrator and member of our faculty.
 
As Provost, Dr. Walker will be CSUN's chief academic officer and we are excited she is joining us at CSUN. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Walker and giving her a warm welcome when she arrives on campus.


Dianne F. Harrison, Ph.D.
President
California State University, Northridge