Michelle Piskulich, provost, Oakland, Molloy, Academic Affairs,
July 8, 2021
Molloy College, on Long Island in New York, has announced that after a national search, Dr. C. Michelle Piskulich has accepted the newly structured position of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. She will begin her new role on August 23.
“Michelle played a pivotal role for quickly and effectively adjusting our academic offerings when the pandemic hit,” said Oakland University President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz. “She showed tremendous leadership as our Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost during a difficult period that none of us will soon forget. She has been an outstanding OU faculty member and administrator for many years and I am confident she will be extremely successful in the next chapter of her career. I am thrilled to know that she will be joining our colleague, President Jim Lentini at Molloy College”.
“I will be forever grateful for Michelle’s help and guidance during my transition to Oakland University. Her contributions to OU's operational excellence have been many and her untiring commitment to Academic Affairs unparalleled,” said Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Britt Rios-Ellis. “She has been a pillar of the campus community for a long time now and will be deeply missed. I wish her the very best in her new position and look forward to hearing about the great things that she will accomplish at Molloy College.”
Piskulich leaves Oakland as Senior Associate Provost and Associate Professor of Political Science. She also held a wide range of leadership assignments during her time at Oakland, including time as Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost during the early days of the pandemic.
Other administrative accomplishments during Piskulich’s time in the Office of the Provost include the development of alternative revenue generation through successful credit and noncredit custom programs in response to regional workforce development needs, overseeing the expansion of online courses and programs to meet student needs and market demands, representing Academic Affairs as a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council and overseeing the Center for Excellence in Teaching (CETL) initiatives for faculty development and training, chair training, new faculty orientation, part-time faculty orientation, and chair orientation.
Prior to that, Piskulich served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Director of the Master of Public Administration Program, acting director of Women’s Studies and Chair of the Department of Political Science, where she held a tenured faculty appointment. She was also President of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), an organization that is the accreditation body for master’s degree programs in public policy, affairs, and administration for 318 colleges and universities in 25 countries.
Piskulich has been active in the OU community as a member and chair of numerous committees and taskforces dedicated to advancing the status of women, including the Women’s Studies Executive Committee, Women’s History Month Committee, the Work-Life Balance Task Force, the Women’s Employee Resource Group (WERG), the ACE Network Conference Planning Committee, and the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council’s conference Planning Committee.
She served as an institutional representative to the Michigan ACE Network from 2010 to 2019, during which OU’s participation in the Women of Color Collaborative and all statewide activities increased significantly. Piskulich organized Equal Pay Day events and for several years was an integral part of planning the Googasian Award Luncheon, which recognizes individuals who have worked to improve the status of women on and off campus. In 2021, her many contributions led to her winning the Michigan ACE Award and the Googasian Award.
During her classroom teaching career, she taught courses in research methods and statistics, quantitative techniques, computer techniques, women and politics, public policy, public administration theory, public budgeting and finance, citizenship and civil society, and comparative politics.
In addition, Piskulich has been an active mentor to many OU faculty and professional staff members interested in expanding their leadership opportunities over the years. She has mentored associate deans, department chairs, faculty leaders and administrative professionals.
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