Three Women Named to Provost Positions at State Universities

Neeli Bendapudi was named executive vice chancellor and provost at the flagship campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Dr. Bendapudi has been serving as the dean and H.D. Price Professor of Business at the University of Kansas School of Business. She has held that post since 2011.

From 1996 to 2011, Dr. Bendapudi served on the faculty at Ohio State University and was promoted to full professor of marketing in 2008. Earlier in her career, Professor Bendapudi taught marketing at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Bendapudi holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Andhra University in India. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Kansas.

Judith L. Bonner was appointed executive vice president and provost at Mississippi State University. From 2012 to 2015, Dr. Bonner was president of the University of Alabama.

Dr. Bonner joined the faculty at the University of Alabama in 1981 after teaching at the University of Alabama Birmingham and Ohio State University. She was promoted to full professor in 1988 and was named dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences in 1989. She served in that post until 2003, when she was named provost and vice president for academic affairs. In March 2012, Dr. Bonner was named interim president of the University of Alabama and was elevated to the post on a permanent basis on November 1, 2012.

Dr. Bonner holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alabama and earned a Ph.D. in nutrition at Ohio State University.

Melanie Hatch was appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs at Middle Georgia State University in Macon. She has been serving as chancellor and chief academic officer of the DuBois campus of Pennsylvania State University. Before being named chancellor of Penn State-DuBois in 2013, Dr. Hatch was the founding dean of the College of Engineering and Business at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Hatch is a graduate of Indiana University, where she majored in mathematics. She earned a master’s degree in management science from the University of Dayton in Ohio and a Ph.D. in management science from Virginia Tech.