March 4, 2015

Michael Licari has been selected to serve as Indiana State University's provost and vice president for academic affairs, university President Dan Bradley announced today.

Licari comes to Indiana State from the University of Northern Iowa, where he has held a variety of academic and administrative positions since 2001. He has served as interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs since July 2014 and was called upon last fall to serve as acting president of UNI for more than one month.

"It is exciting to attract a person of Mike Licari's caliber to this important position," Bradley said. "His experience and high level of energy will help Indiana State move forward on the path that his predecessors Jack Maynard and Biff Williams started. I am looking forward to working with him."

"I am looking forward to joining the ISU family," Licari said. "I am excited for the opportunity and am eager to get to work."

Diann McKee, Indiana State's vice president for business affairs and finance and chair of the provost search committee, said the panel was impressed by Licari's credentials and interaction during on-campus interviews.

"We received many positive comments from representatives of all constituencies after his visit, and I am confident that all of my colleagues are as pleased as I am to welcome Mike to ISU," McKee said.

"The Faculty Senate leadership is delighted that Dr. Licari has agreed to be our next provost," said Robert Guell, chair of the Faculty Senate at Indiana State. "Our discussions with him showed him to a wise and experienced administrator with exactly the temperament we want at the helm of Academic Affairs. He understands faculty, the vital role of shared governance, and the reality of higher education in the twenty-first century. We look forward to working with Dr. Bradley and Dr. Licari."

As interim provost at Northern Iowa, Licari began the development of the first academic master plan, reorganized the administrative structure for enrollment management, funded a program to help new faculty launch research, developed a program to increase the diversity of candidates for academic positions and developed strategic partnerships with domestic and international higher education institutions.

Licari's previous positions at Northern Iowa included associate provost and dean of the graduate college; interim associate dean of the graduate college; interim head of the political science department; administrative fellow in the provost's office; associate director of the Master of Public Policy program; and assistant professor, associate professor and professor of political science. He was chair of the Faculty Senate at UNI from 2007-08. He previously served for four years as assistant professor of political science at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

He received the Helping Students Succeed Award from UNI's Division of Student Affairs in 2014 and received the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Service Award in 2009.

Licari's community service activities have included advising the Cedar Rapids school district in revising its social studies program to reflect a change in the form of city government. He is a Boy Scout scoutmaster and a member of the Cedar Falls High School Band Boosters and has served as chair and vice chair of the Malcolm Price Lab School Parental Advisory Committee.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His teaching has been in public policy, public administration and statistics, including classes on public health policy.

Licari has a wife, Kirsten and a son, Daniel. He will begin his duties at Indiana State on July 1.