Indian-origin professor Neeli Bendapudi has created historical past as the primary lady and individual of color to be named because the president of America’s prestigious Pennsylvania State University, the academic establishment introduced on Thursday.
Bendapudi, who was born in Visakhapatnam and got here to the US in 1986 for increased research, is presently serving because the president and professor of promoting on the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
She has been unanimously named Penn State’s subsequent president by the Penn State Board of Trustees on December 9, the Pennsylvania State University stated in a press release on its web site.
When she begins her appointment as Penn State’s nineteenth president in spring 2022, she is going to make historical past as the primary lady and individual of color to function the University’s president, it stated.
Bendapudi, presently the 18th president of the University of Louisville, is a recognised chief in increased schooling who specialises in advertising and marketing and shopper behaviour.
With a virtually 30-year profession in academia, she has taught advertising and marketing and served in quite a lot of administrative roles over time, together with as provost and government vice chancellor on the University of Kansas, dean of the School of Business on the University of Kansas, and founding director of the Initiative for Managing Services at Ohio State University.
With a concentrate on collaboration and growth, Bendapudi has devoted her profession to scholar success, fostering inclusivity, and creating alternatives for college students, school and employees to thrive.
“Penn State is a world-class university, and I couldn’t be prouder and more excited to join this vibrant community of outstanding students, faculty, staff and alumni throughout the commonwealth and beyond,” Bendapudi stated. “Thank you to the Penn State community and Board of Trustees. I am grateful for this opportunity and will make it my mission to help Penn State reach new heights across each of our campuses.”
Bendapudi will succeed President Eric J Barron, who will retire after serving Penn State for greater than 30 years.
“We are proud to welcome Dr. Bendapudi to Penn State. She is a dynamic and innovative leader who has dedicated nearly her entire professional life to higher education and is prepared to help our University advance in the ways we support students, create new knowledge and serve society,” stated Matt Schuyler, chair of the Board of Trustees.
“I want to extend my appreciation on behalf of the entire Board of Trustees to the many Penn State community members who participated in this selection process. Your engagement served as a critical framework throughout the search and has helped lead us to this exciting new chapter in Penn State’s history.”
As an completed chief, she is going to carry a forward-looking perspective to the presidency whereas remaining grounded within the essential connections with the scholars. The qualities of a Twenty first-century educational chief —commitments to excellence, fairness and alternative — are second nature to Bendapudi, stated Nina Jablonski, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology and member of the Presidential Recruitment and Selection Committee.
Bendapudi, who specialises in buyer expertise, has served because the 18th president of the University of Louisville since 2018.
In this function, she oversees the college’s 12 educational faculties, Division 1 athletics programme, and built-in educational well being system, which incorporates 5 hospitals, 4 medical facilities and almost 200 doctor follow areas.
Serving greater than 16,000 undergraduate and 6,300 graduate college students, the University of Louisville is a Research 1 doctoral college with 40 per cent Pell-eligible college students.
Bendapudi has beforehand held quite a few notable positions in increased schooling, together with serving as provost and government vice chancellor on the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, the state’s flagship college, from 2016 to 2018, and as dean of KU’s School of Business between 2011 and 2016.
She additionally beforehand served as government vp and chief buyer officer for Huntington National Bank, on the time a top-30 US financial institution with USD 55 billion in property and 12,000 associates. She additionally has consulted for among the world’s largest corporations and organisations, together with AIG, Proctor & Gamble, and the US Army.
During her 27-year profession as an educator, Bendapudi has taught advertising and marketing on the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral ranges and acquired quite a few school and nationwide educating awards, together with the Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Marketing Teacher Award.
She has taught on the University of Louisville, University of Kansas, Texas A&M University and Ohio State University.
Bendapudi earned her bachelor’s diploma in English and grasp of enterprise administration diploma from Andhra University in India and her doctorate in advertising and marketing from the University of Kansas.
She is married to Dr Venkat Bendapudi, who’s now retired after serving on the colleges at Ohio State University, University of Kansas and University of Louisville.
Bendapudi will assume management for Penn State’s 24-campus community and top-ranked on-line World Campus. The University affords greater than 275 baccalaureate diploma majors and has the most important community of residing alumni worldwide with greater than 700,000 members.
