Teresa Mastin has been selected as Michigan State University’s next vice provost and associate vice president for faculty and academic staff affairs, effective Jan. 1, 2024. In this role she will be responsible for envisioning, leading and implementing the university’s strategic commitment and priority to advance faculty and academic staff success in addition to fostering an academic climate of respect, care, diversity, equity and inclusion at the university.
Mastin is currently the interim dean of MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences, or ComArtSci. Since she began leading the college in May of this year, she has focused on fostering a college culture of communication, connection and celebration; preparing the ComArtSci landscape for the smooth onboarding of its incoming dean; and encouraging reflection on what it means to be a 21st-century land-grant institution. Prior to stepping into the role of interim dean, Mastin served as a professor and chairperson for the Department of Advertising and Public Relations in ComArtSci. She earned her doctorate in mass media from MSU, her master’s in public relations from California State University, Fullerton, and her bachelor’s in theology/liberal arts from Ambassador College.
“Through her leadership at the department and college levels, Dr. Mastin has demonstrated that she cares genuinely and deeply about fostering the success and mission of the university – as well as the people working toward advancing our success and fulfilling our mission,” said MSU Interim Provost Thomas Jeitschko. “She knows MSU well and also has experience across a broad range of areas at different universities. She is calm, deliberate and a good listener – strengths she brings with her to her new role in the Office of the Provost.”
An accomplished scholar who has been published in a broad range of peer-reviewed journals, Mastin’s primary research interests include sustained dialogue as a tool for community action, media advocacy as a public relations tool, and media coverage of health issues related to women and vulnerable populations, especially regarding individuals residing in struggling urban communities and low-income countries. She introduced sustained dialogue to Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine students, to MSU’s ComArtSci community and to MSU students who participated in the inaugural “Visual Storytelling in Kenya” education abroad program in 2022. Mastin was also a Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership Fellow in the 2021-22 cohort.
While serving as director of diversity and inclusion at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Mastin completed a health care executive diversity and inclusion certificate program sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges and was the school’s intercultural development inventory certified administrator. She frequently presented diversity and inclusion and cultural competency talks, workshops, grand rounds, LGBTQ safe space trainings and taught sustained and intergroup dialogue courses that addressed critical issues such as racial climate/privilege and sexual misconduct/harassment in the medical profession.
“As a premier land-grant institution, MSU has positively impacted the lives of countless people and communities around the world,” said Mastin. “I am honored to serve in a role responsible for envisioning, leading and implementing the university’s commitment to advance faculty and academic staff success in a manner that benefits the entire MSU community, Michigan residents and the global community at large.”
Mastin will succeed Ann Austin, who is eager to return to faculty responsibilities – including the resumption of leadership responsibilities for several significant grant projects – after serving as interim vice provost and associate vice president for faculty and academic staff affairs with dedication since July 2022.
By Cathy Burns