Maryanne Reed

Maryanne Reed was named provost and vice president of academic affairs for West Virginia University in April 2019 and stepped into the role on July 1, 2019. As provost, she is the chief academic officer responsible for the administration of all academic policies, programs, facilities and budgetary matters. She is committed to WVU’s land-grant mission of ensuring access to exceptional education, supporting and facilitating innovative research and serving the needs of the state and people of West Virginia.

Since early 2020, Reed has led major initiatives in her role as Provost, including managing unprecedented adjustments in academic delivery due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. In March 2020, she led the University’s shift to remote learning in response to the initial pandemic crisis and later navigated a return to campus with significant changes in classroom protocols, production of hybrid and remote teaching resources, and adjustments to academic policies to ensure continued student and faculty success.

Reed is also leading a system-wide academic transformation initiative designed to position the University for success in a dynamic and challenging higher education environment. Priorities within academic transformation include: identifying instructional efficiencies and cost savings to strengthen the institution’s financial position; strengthening and investing in student success; and investing in new areas of growth and opportunity in both academic programming and research.

Prior to her new appointment, Reed served for 15 years as dean of the WVU Reed College of Media, where she was also a professor in the Journalism program. She has been a member of the College of Media faculty since 1993.

Under Reed’s tenure as dean, the College of Media experienced record enrollment in its graduate and undergraduate programs, including its master’s degree program in Integrated Marketing Communications, the nation’s first online graduate program of its kind.

Reed led major curriculum and programmatic changes at the College of Media, including the development of three interdisciplinary degree programs: a B.A. in Interactive Design for Media with the College of Creative Arts; a B.S. in Sports and Adventure Media with the College of Physical Activity and Sport; and an upcoming online B.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications with the Chambers College of Business and Economics.

At the College of Media, she introduced and oversaw numerous curricular innovations, including the merger of advertising and public relations into an integrated major, a re-envisioning of the journalism major as digital-first and student-centered, the creation of nine academic minors for non-majors and the transformation of the school to a college. She also led the development of a new state-of-the-art Media Innovation Center in the Evansdale Crossing Building.

Under Reed’s leadership, the College of Media also created an Innovator-In-Residence program that engages high-level journalists and newsroom change agents in virtual residencies that result in real-world projects and curricula at the intersection of media, technology and audience. Recent innovators have come from such publications as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNN, Vox, ProPublica and the Huffington Post.

Widely respected as a gifted higher education administrator, Reed was tapped to lead WVU’s largest college, the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, as interim dean from 2015-2016. Following the 2016 Presidential election and subsequent unrest on campus and in the community, she created and led a committee to brainstorm positive community-building and communication strategies for a diverse community like WVU. Reed also has led searches for deans and senior academic administrators. Most recently, in 2018 she was tapped to co-lead Strategic Transformation at the University.

Reed has been recognized both regionally and nationally for her achievements. She was honored with the national “Scripps Howard Administrator of the Year” award in 2016. She served as president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2016-2017. She was named a “West Virginia Wonder Woman” in 2016 by WV Living Magazine, and she is a past recipient of the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s “Significant Achievement in Service to the State” award.

Before coming to WVU, Reed was a broadcast reporter and producer. She has produced several award-winning documentaries and long-form stories for regional and national television. She has an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and a B.A. in history from the University of Massachusetts.