Marion Underwood’s career journey in higher education has always been driven by a desire to seek out and serve at institutions that constantly raise the bar on excellence.
This has meant finding places where the people are passionate about their work, and where institutional values set expectations of an academic enterprise dedicated to student success, global impact through research and outreach, creative scholarship, innovation, collaboration and caring.
Underwood says she has found all of those attributes at Colorado State University and is excited to serve as provost and executive vice president to help the university reach the next summit in its more than 150-year history of reaching for the highest points attainable.
“What drew me to CSU was its commitment to the land-grant mission of access and inclusive excellence – and its clear trajectory as an institution that has earned a reputation as one of the best public universities in the country and is never content to call it a day,” said Underwood.
After her interviews and open forums on campus, that feeling was reinforced as she talked with faculty, staff and students and was impressed by their questions.
“CSU is a perfect combination of excellence on the rise and a commitment to equity,” Underwood said. “I’ve always been attracted to places that have good people who are excellent and caring, and that’s what I sense about CSU.”
International background
Underwood knows a thing or two about people and places. She was born in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and spent her early years living in Baghdad and then Tripoli, Libya, where her father worked as a geology professor. She recalls a long road trip camping with her family around Europe when she was only 4 and her two siblings were even younger. In part because of long road trips, Underwood became an avid reader at an early age.
The family moved to Texas during her elementary school years after her dad got a job at West Texas A&M, then relocated to Manhattan, Kansas, where he took a position at Kansas State. Underwood was raised with a deep appreciation for higher education; her grandmother had a master’s degree and taught coursework in home economics.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where a professor named Jonathan Cheek showed her how to conduct research in psychology. Underwood quickly developed a passion and appreciation for research and the discipline of psychology. She changed her major from chemistry to psychology, and after graduating, she attended Duke University for graduate studies in clinical psychology. She gained another mentor there, John Coie, who was studying violence and aggression in young boys, and Underwood convinced him to let her expand that research to include young girls.
Academic career
During her career, Underwood’s research has focused on the developmental origins and outcomes of social aggression and how adolescents’ digital communication relates to adjustment.
Her first full-time job in higher education was at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. In 1998, Underwood took a faculty position at the University of Texas at Dallas to be closer to her parents and to join the late Bert Moore, a dean who she described as a visionary leader who taught her how to become a good administrator. While at UT Dallas, she was named the Ashbel Smith Professor of Psychological Sciences; helped launch the Center for Children and Families; served as associate dean for programs and administration; and eventually became dean of graduate studies and associate provost.
In 2018, she was recruited to Purdue University, where she served as dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences.
She was named CSU’s new provost and executive vice president in October, and began serving in that role Jan. 1.
“As a renowned scholar and accomplished academic administrator who is grounded in the land-grant tradition, Dr. Underwood will provide academic vision and leadership as we continue to elevate CSU as a leading land-grant university,” CSU President Amy Parsons said.
Values and priorities
Underwood explained that her core beliefs in access to higher education, diversity, equity and openness to all individuals come from her late parents.
“It goes back to my family,” she said. “My father was a professor, and my parents wanted us to pursue a good education and treat other people well. They modeled being open to new communities and all types of people. They valued inclusion and never met a stranger.”
At CSU, Underwood sees excellence in many areas – including research, sustainability, democracy and the One Health model – and she wants to elevate the University even further so that the world knows that CSU offers “excellent educational programs in a way that students from all backgrounds can succeed.” She said she looks forward to working with academic leadership, Faculty Council and the faculty on innovations to the undergraduate curriculum and elevating graduate education.
“I have really high standards, but I believe in having both excellence and a high level of support,” she said. “And we can’t be the country we want to be unless more people have access to higher education.”
