Provost Advisory Group

Elizabeth Béjar, Ph.D., serves as provost, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Florida International University providing oversight and strategic direction for the university’s 56,000 students, 2000 faculty, and 11 colleges and 30 institutes.

As the university’s chief academic officer, Dr. Béjar leads a team of academic deans and provost senior staff toward the implementation of FIU’s ambitious strategic plan and bold vision to become a top 30 public university in research excellence and student success. As CAO and chief operating officer, Dr. Béjar oversees an annual budget of $1.45 billion.

She has served as principal investigator for several grants, including a funded grant studying minority-serving institutions' models of success and a $2 million Department of Labor grant focused on the future of the cybersecurity workforce. Under her leadership, FIU received a $975,000 Department of Education grant to build on the success of completion grants and financial wellness programming to re-enroll students who stopped out during the pandemic or are at risk of stopping out.

Recent strategic initiatives include mobilizing and working with teams of education professionals to research, pilot, develop and implement 21st-century student success initiatives.

The first Hispanic and first alumna to serve as provost, she joined FIU in 2003 and has held several key leadership positions: as vice provost for Academic Planning and Accountability (2009-2014), vice president of Academic Affairs(2014-2018), senior vice president for Academic and Student Affairs (2018-2022), and interim provost (2022-2023). She was appointed provost in February 2023. Dr. Béjar received her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Boston College, an MS in International and Intercultural Development Education from FIU and a BA in Psychology and Elementary Education from the University of Miami.

A first-generation college student, Mendez graduated from Santa Clara University in 1998, receiving a bachelor’s degree in combined sciences. From there, she went to Indiana University, earning a master’s degree in political science in 2000 and a Ph.D. in political science in 2003. She then became an assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston (2003-2005) before joining the OSU political science faculty in 2005. 

Mendez was named interim provost in January 2021 following the announcement of Dr. Gary Sandefur’s retirement. She has served as a member of President Shrum’s senior leadership team, co-chair of the strategy steering committee as well as co-chair of OSU’s Pandemic Response Team. During her time at OSU, she also has led initiatives to increase collaborative research opportunities across academic colleges and campuses, increased online degree offerings and enrollment as well as led efforts to examine and provide recommendations for possible reforms to general education at OSU.

Prior to that, Mendez served as vice provost of academic affairs and a professor of political science, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (2018-2019), associate dean for research and facilities (2017-2018), interim associate dean for research (2014-2015) and political science department head (2011-2014; 2015-2017).

Mendez’s research background is rooted in political information processing, political behavior and political communication. Her work has been published in journals including Journal of Politics; Political Research Quarterly; Social Science Quarterly; Political Psychology; Politics and Gender; Journal of Women, Politics and Policy; PS: Political Science and Politics; Journal of Media Psychology; and the Journal of Political Science. 

Jennifer King Rice began her appointment as senior vice president and provost in July 2021.

She was previously dean of the College of Education, where she focused her efforts to align educational resources with initiatives to advance excellence, equity and social justice in preschool through graduate school. Rice has served on the faculty and in college leadership roles at UMD for more than 25 years, and has been recognized as a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.

Before coming to Maryland, she was a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Rice’s research draws on the discipline of economics to study policy questions concerning excellence and equity in K-12 education systems. An expert on school finance and teacher policy, she regularly advises state and federal agencies.

A prolific scholar, she has served on the editorial boards of American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Education Finance and Policy. In addition to positions as a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellow and a visiting fellow at the Urban Institute, she is a past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy.

She completed her B.S. in mathematics and English at Marquette University and earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in educational administration and social foundations from Cornell University.

A career advocate for student success and faculty excellence, Dr. Heather Shipley is a collaborative academic leader and a systems thinker with over 15 years of experience in higher education. She currently serves as UTSA’s Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs where she oversees eight academic colleges; the academic support divisions, including Faculty Success, Academic Innovation, Undergraduate Studies, Career Engaged Learning, Continuous Improvement & Accreditation, Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies, Global Initiatives, Student Success, Strategic Enrollment, Student Affairs, and the Libraries, UTSA Art Collection and the Institute of Texan Cultures; in addition to cross-cutting teams Institutional Research and Analysis, Academic Finance & Administration, Academic Initiatives, and Academic Strategic Communications.

She previously served UTSA as Senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and the inaugural holder of the Hispanic Thriving Institution Endowed Chair for the Dean of University College where she guided the divisions of Career-Engaged Learning, Continuous Improvement and Accreditation, Student Disability Services, Faculty Success, Undergraduate Studies, and University College.

Shipley has a national reputation for advancing student success, enhancing experiential learning opportunities and recruiting, retaining and developing faculty. As UTSA’s Classroom-to-Career Initiative Chair, she led the institution-wide effort to prepare students with marketable skills through immersive career-focused learning-by-doing opportunities.

A deep commitment as a servant-leader permeates Shipley’s work. She led the efforts earning UTSA the 2020 Seal of Excelencia from Excelencia in Education, certifying the university’s commitment to serve Latino students. Her commitment to academic and research excellence helped UTSA earn national distinction as a Carnegie Foundation R1 Institution in 2021, leading to an invitation to become a founding member of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities.

She led a team to achieve UTSA’s reaffirmation of accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

A Distinguished Teaching Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Management in UTSA’s Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design, she has received prestigious awards including the UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award and UTSA’s Faculty Service to Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry Award. She is a member of UTSA's Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars.

As a researcher, Shipley has earned over $14 million in funding to study interdisciplinary topics such as innovative water treatment processes including the use of novel technologies such as nanotechnology, low impact development, water quality monitoring and engineering education. A national and international presenter, she has authored more than 40 refereed journal articles. She is a member of the American Chemical Society, Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors and the American Society of Engineering Education. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in environmental engineering from Rice University and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Baylor University.

A noted innovator, scholar, and higher education leader, Rahul Shrivastav has served as executive vice president and provost at Indiana University Bloomington since 2022. 

Shrivastav leads daily operations for the IU Bloomington campus, serving more than 47,000 students, 3,000 faculty, and 10,000 staff, with an annual operating budget of over $2 billion. His portfolio includes IUB’s 17 schools and eight vice provost areas covering undergraduate and graduate education, research, faculty affairs, student life, enrollment management, and DEI. 

Under his leadership, IU Bloomington has embarked on a new strategic plan, IUB 2030, which charts an ambitious, seven-year vision, building on IU Bloomington’s historic strengths, to further elevate the campus and increase impact across the communities it serves and supports. Shrivastav’s efforts to elevate the student experience include new academic programs in high-demand areas, a redesign of academic advising, and an expanded focus on experiential learning and career development. He has also expanded campus research and creative activity and sparked a $45 million lab space renovation project and an innovative faculty hiring initiative in fields of strategic growth.  

Shrivastav previously served as Vice President for Instruction at the University of Georgia, where he oversaw 20 different offices and programs that support critical teaching and learning functions, as well as pandemic-related planning and implementation, student success initiatives, and critical research, innovation, and entrepreneurship programming and support. In that role, he was also part of the university’s executive leadership team as a member of the President’s Cabinet, the Senior Advisory Group, and the provost’s leadership team, including its Academic Leadership Group. His planning, development, and implementation of student success initiatives led to significant improvements in external rankings; improved retention and graduation rates; and an increasingly accomplished, diverse student body.  

Prior to joining the University of Georgia, Shrivastav was a professor and chair of the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at Michigan State University, where he also directed the Voice and Speech Laboratory. There, he was responsible for oversight of all departmental faculty, budget, academic programs, facilities, students, external communications, and fundraising. He recruited new faculty, developed new research laboratories, and doubled the enrollment in the master’s graduate program. 

Shrivastav served on the faculty at the University of Florida and directed its Voice Acoustics and Perception Laboratory and was a research scientist at the Malcom Randal VA Medical Center, where he was a part of the Oral-Motor Research Group within the Brain Rehabilitation Research Center. In 2007, he co-founded the start-up company Audigence, Inc. to commercialize some of the intellectual property developed by this research group. He has served at Audigence as chief scientist and on its scientific advisory board. 

Over his career, Shrivastav has taught graduate and undergraduate courses across a range of topics, including phonetics of American speech, speech disorders, neural bases of communication, and speech anatomy and physiology; mentored doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows at the University of Florida and Michigan State University; and hosted Fulbright fellows from India, Jordan, and Brazil. 

The author of more than 150 publications, Shrivastav’s research is focused on speech perception abilities and speech production deficits in people with various diseases. This work helps design better health care and commercial applications, measurement systems for treatment outcomes, improved hearing aids, cochlear implants and mobile phones, and assessment and screening tools for a variety of diseases. 

The National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Florida High Tech Corridor Council, and Audigence, Inc., have all provided funding for Shrivastav’s research. He also serves several national and international professional organizations in various scientific, administrative, and executive roles. 

Shrivastav has received numerous awards and honors during his career, including the Colonel Allan R. and Margaret G. Crow Term Professorship at the University of Florida. In 2013, he was named a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. The National Academy of Inventors elected him as a Fellow in 2020. 

Shrivastav’s undergraduate and graduate training are in speech and hearing sciences from the University of Mysore, India. He received his doctoral degree in speech and hearing sciences, with a minor in cognitive sciences, from IU Bloomington. 

Manfred H. M. van Dulmen is serving as UMBC’s Provost. The Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs maintain our community’s academic integrity by providing broad oversight of all instruction and research programs to ensure their quality and advancement.

Dr. van Dulmen comes to UMBC from Kent State University in Ohio, where he served as Senior Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate College. He started at Kent State as a faculty member in the Department of Psychological Sciences in 2004, and since then, has served in numerous academic leadership positions at Kent State, including Interim Department Chair and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

He led Kent State through the COVID-19 pandemic and developed strategies for enhancing graduate education and supporting student mental health. He also led strategic planning in Academic Affairs, helped to enhance and promote research strength across all disciplines, and led efforts resulting in new collaborative degree programs in data science and cybersecurity, as well as in innovative micro-credential programs at Kent State.

Dr. van Dulmen is an award-winning scholar with a Ph.D. in family social science from the University of Minnesota. He has published over 100 articles and book chapters, and edited or co-edited three books. He also founded and served as editor-in-chief of the Sage Publications journal Emerging Adulthood. His research interests include adolescent and young adult relationships and experiences, externalizing behavior problems and aggression, and measurement and

John Wiebe, Ph.D. has served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) since March of 2020. Prior to his appointment to that position, he served the institution for 22 years in other roles, including administrative positions as Interim Provost, Vice Provost, Associate Provost, and President of the Faculty Senate. 
 
As Provost, Dr. Wiebe is the University’s chief academic officer and collaborates with deans, faculty, staff and senior administration across the campus to develop and promote UTEP's nationally recognized model for enhancing the excellence of its academic and research programs, while successfully offering access and affordability to a predominantly first-generation and historically underserved student population. He is responsible for the oversight and administration of all academic degree programs. As a member of the President’s cabinet, Dr. Wiebe plays a key role in planning and policy development for the university, and strategic campus initiatives such as the UTEP Edge, a student success initiative that seeks to integrate high-impact practices with the goal of preparing students for leadership and success, both on campus and beyond. 
 
Dr. Wiebe received his Ph.D. in clinical health psychology from the University of Iowa and completed a clinical psychology doctoral internship at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. He also holds a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, summa cum laude, from Ohio Wesleyan University. A professor of psychology and licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Wiebe has a history of teaching and funded research in psychometrics, behavioral medicine, and mental health.