Executive Bios - MSU President
Lou Anna K. Simon
http://president.msu.edu
(517) 355-6560
presmail@msu.edu
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Lou Anna K. Simon is the twentieth president of Michigan State University, leading the way to advancing knowledge and transforming lives. She served as provost and vice president for academic affairs from 1993 to 2004, interim president in 2003, and was appointed president by the MSU Board of Trustees in January 2005.
President Simon has a distinguished history with MSU. After earning her doctorate in administration and higher education from MSU in 1974, she became a member of the MSU faculty and assistant director of the Office of Institutional Research (now the Office of Planning and Budgets). From there, she moved into a variety of administrative roles, including assistant provost for general academic administration during the 1980s and associate provost in the early 1990s.
President Simon commitment to the land-grant tradition of applying education in diverse areas, particularly economic development and globalization, has been demonstrated on a national level through her work as a member of the Council on Competitiveness and the Board of Directors for the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC).
President Simon was appointed to the State of Michigan Governor’s Emergency Financial Advisory Panel, and she has served as a member of the Lt. Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth (Cherry Commission). She is a member of the Michigan Strategic Economic Investment and Commercialization Board (SEIC), the Detroit Renaissance Board of Directors, and, locally, is involved with Prima Civitas.
President Simon is a member of the following global initiatives: the American Council on Education (ACE) Commission on International Initiatives and the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa, for which she serves on the executive committee.