Dr. Michael K. McLendon

Dr. Michael K. McLendon was appointed as interim provost, effective July 2017, placing on hold his service as the 10th dean of Baylor’s School of Education. In addition to serving as chief academic officer, he continues to serve as the Hale Endowed Professor in Higher Education Leadership and Policy. He provides academic oversight and strategic direction for Baylor’s 17,000 students, over 1,000 faculty, 12 academic schools and colleges and the Baylor Library system.

A leading expert on higher education, Dr. McLendon has been named as one of the nation’s leading university-based academics whose research contributes most substantially to public debates around education in the U.S. He advises government leaders and organizations on topics ranging from college costs and governance to improving accountability and student success in higher education.

He is widely published in leading research journals on the topics of governance and management, finance, politics and public policy as these relate to higher education both in the U.S. and internationally. Dr. McLendon’s multidisciplinary scholarship often draws on the fields of political science, public administration and organizational behavior in predicting or explaining the policy adoptive behavior of state governments in the arena of higher education.

Dr. McLendon is responsible for all aspects of the University’s diverse academic mission, including teaching and learning, research and scholarship and service and outreach. He also has been charged with leading the formation of a strategic academic plan to further the University’s development consistent with its Pro Futuris vision.

Before coming to Baylor in 2015, Dr. McLendon held an endowed chair and served as the academic associate dean at SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development. Previously, he was the executive associate dean, undergraduate dean and chief of staff at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, on whose faculty he served for 13 years. He currently holds appointments as a senior fellow at SMU and as a faculty fellow at the University of Georgia.

Dr. McLendon earned a PhD in higher education policy from the University of Michigan, an MS from Florida State and a BA in political science from Baylor.