Dear Campus Community:
I am pleased to announce Dr. Matt Cecil will be joining NKU as our Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs (PEVPAA) on July 1. Matt comes to us from Minnesota State University, Mankato where he is currently serving as Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. Like NKU, MSU Mankato is an AASCU institution committed to student success and stewardship of place. Our two institutions align in how we serve our student populations and our missions. This is one of the many reasons why I feel Matt is the ideal person to serve as our next Provost.
For four years, Matt served as Minnesota State’s Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities before being named Interim Provost. He has held administrative roles at South Dakota State University and Wichita State University. He also served as a faculty member at Purdue University and the University of Oklahoma. Prior to his academic career, Matt worked as a journalist, political press secretary and corporate media relations specialist. He is also a media historian. This diverse background provides a broad perspective that complements Matt’s extensive higher education experience and sets him up well to lead NKU’s academic enterprise.
I am extremely grateful to the PEVPAA Search Advisory Committee and Co-Chairs Bonita Brown and Dale Stephenson. Many hours went into the process of finding our next Provost, and I appreciate all of their work. I also would like to thank Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, Ande Durojaiye, who will continue in this role through June 30.
Matt joins an NKU community ready to navigate a post-pandemic world. Our creativity, appreciation, resiliency, engagement (CARE) and unwavering focus on helping all learners succeed will be invaluable as we begin planning for the fall. We are committed to our vision of becoming nationally recognized as a student-ready, regionally engaged university that empowers diverse learners for economic and social mobility. I look forward to working with Matt to help deliver that promise.
Sincerely,
Ashish Vaidya
