Donald P. Christian
Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs
Donald Christian was appointed Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the State University of New York at New Paltz in August 2009.
As Provost and Vice President, Christian serves as the college’s chief academic officer, is a member of the President’s executive management team, and assumes the responsibilities of chief executive in the President’s absence. Reporting directly to the President, the Provost/Vice President is responsible for the five instructional divisions, as well as the Sojourner Truth Library, Academic Advising, Center for International Programs, Sponsored Programs, the Honors Program and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
It is Christian’s responsibility to hire faculty who will educate the next generation of students and to ensure that the curriculum students study is current and well supported. As of fall 2008, there were 345 full-time and 303 part-time faculty teaching at SUNY Paltz.
In addition to serving as provost, Christian teaches in the Biology Department.
Prior to his arrival at New Paltz, Christian was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for five years. Between 1997 and 2004, he served as associate dean for the Biological Sciences at the University of Montana where he was also professor. Christian held many positions at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, between 1978 and 1997, including chair of and professor in the Biology Department and director of graduate studies in the Biology Graduate Program. From 1971 to 1978, he worked at Michigan State University as an instructor in the Department of Zoology and curator of mammals at the college’s museum.
In 2008, Christian was invited to participate in the Wingspread Conference on Liberal Education by Wisconsin’s Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly. Christian was awarded the Outstanding Academic Administrator Award from the University of Montana in 2000 and the Service to Chapter Award from the Minnesota Chapter of the Wildlife Society in 1995.
Christian has been widely published in journals such as Thought & Action; Journal of Wildlife Management; Wildlife Biology; Wetlands; Biomass & Bioenergy; Conservation Biology; and the Journal of Mammalogy.
Christian earned his Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology and his Master of Science and Ph.D. in Zoology from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.
Christian resides in New Paltz, N.Y.