Appointment of Carl Lejuez as Executive Vice President and Provost
April 27, 2022
Dear Stony Brook University faculty and staff,
I am pleased to announce that Carl Lejuez (pronounced lehzh-way) will become Stony Brook University’s next executive vice president and provost, effective July 1, 2022. He rose to the top of a very competitive pool of candidates.
Carl is currently the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Connecticut (UConn), and before that he served as interim provost and executive vice chancellor at The University of Kansas. He has run the academic side of two large and complex public flagship universities, and has the necessary background, acumen, and collaborative approach to help elevate and guide our academic mission.
In Carl, we have a leader who comes to the table with a strong track record of experience in public higher education. In his current role, he oversees all aspects of the academic mission with a focus on supporting holistic student success, faculty research, scholarship, and creative endeavors, as well as community impact and engagement. He has also served as a key partner with UConn’s chief diversity officer in supporting an inclusive academic community, and with the director of human resources in staff development. Before serving in his roles as provost, he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Kansas and associate dean for research at the University of Maryland’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
Academically, Carl’s roots are in clinical psychology, and he is a faculty member in the Department of Psychological Services at UConn. His areas of interest and research include mental health interventions for marginalized and underserved populations, mood disorders, and addictions. At Maryland, he founded and served as director of the Center for Addictions, Personality and Emotion Research at the College Park campus. He was an assistant research professor at Brown University, and currently is an adjunct faculty member at the Yale School of Medicine Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn. He received his MA and PhD, both in clinical psychology, from West Virginia University, and earned his BA in psychology from Emory University.
As the chief academic officer at Stony Brook, Carl will be responsible for oversight of the academic mission of the university, providing direct supervision for all academic units, support services, and operations, including enrollment management and student success, and coordinating all academic programs. The deans and directors of the West Campus colleges, schools, libraries, centers, and institutes will report to him, and he will also work collaboratively with Harold “Hal” Paz, executive vice president of health sciences, to support the health sciences schools. Together, they will work to provide greater alignment in our research enterprise, enhance interdisciplinary education, and offer enhanced services to all students and faculty.
Carl is a New Jersey native and a first-generation college student – something he takes pride in that immediately connects him to many of our students. I am confident Carl will help Stony Brook University meet its ambitious goals around research and academic excellence, and will be a stalwart supporter of our students, staff, and faculty. He will help us find additional ways to strategically elevate our research, scholarship, and art making while raising the bar even higher for amplifying our efforts to improve student success.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the stellar leadership of Interim Provost Mónica Bugallo, who is serving in that role with distinction. She has a lengthy list of accomplishments that include revising and implementing the university’s strategic hiring process for faculty, partnering with the University Senate to launch a workgroup on the future of graduate education, and collaborating with the Office of the Vice President for Research to provide seed funding to interdisciplinary research teams. In July, she will continue in her position in the Office of the Provost as vice provost for faculty affairs and diversity, equity, and inclusion, focusing on her thoughtful efforts to support our faculty throughout their careers. She will also continue as a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and faculty director of the Women in Science & Engineering program. Please join me in thanking Mónica for all her contributions to our institution.
This is an exciting time for Stony Brook University, and I am happy to have Carl and his wife, Sara Valinejad Lejuez, join us on Long Island this summer. I hope you will join me in welcoming them when they arrive in July, and I will make sure that there are ample opportunities for the community to meet him.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President