Senior Vice Provost for Academics
As Villanova鈥檚 Senior Vice Provost for Academics, Christine Kelleher Palus, PhD, provides strategic guidance and collaborative leadership on initiatives, programs, operations and structures that support the faculty, teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and academic programs at the University. Dr. Palus provides critical consultation and leadership for key academic functions of the University, including academic programming, promotion and tenure, academic policy, academic grievances, and faculty governance, hiring, retention, recruitment, retirement and development.
In her seven years as Dean of the College of Professional Studies, Dr. Palus led all aspects of the College, including strategic planning, program development, admissions and enrollment, student support, faculty affairs, financial planning and budgeting, operations, fundraising and corporate partnerships. She oversaw a diverse suite of campus and online offerings, including degree completion programs, non-credit professional programs, credit-bearing certificates, high school student programming and enrollment, among others.
Before joining the College of Professional Studies in 2018, Dr. Palus served as Dean of Graduate Studies in Villanova鈥檚 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In this role, she had oversight of more than 20 graduate programs, including two PhD programs and several online professional programs. Dr. Palus previously was chair of Villanova鈥檚 Department of Public Administration and director of the Master of Public Administration program. Her academic career began at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where she was an assistant professor.
An accomplished scholar, Dr. Palus鈥� research on public administration, state politics and local government has been widely published in leading academic journals and other publications. Notably, Dr. Palus (with co-author Susan Webb Yackee, PhD) won the Beryl Radin award in 2016 from the Public Management Research Association for Best Article published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, one of the highest honors in the field of public management.
Dr. Palus earned her BA at Fairfield University, where she double-majored in Visual and Performing Arts (Music) and Politics. She also has an MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.