Jean Morrison Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Graduate Programs

Jean Morrison was named vice provost for academic affairs and graduate programs in May 2009. In this capacity, she has primary responsibility for managing the university’s academic affairs as well as the USC Graduate School. Morrison oversees the University Curriculum Committee, the Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures, and the Provost’s Oversight Committee for Athletic Academic Affairs. She also serves on the Strategic Plan Annual Report Committee and co-chairs the Interdisciplinary Faculty Hiring Committee. Morrison is also a professor of earth sciences in USC College, having joined the faculty in 1988, and leads USC’s Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) program, which has been under her direction since 2002.

Morrison is a metamorphic petrologist whose research addresses how the earth’s crust evolves over time. She has served on a variety of National Science Foundation panels, as an editor of the Journal of Metamorphic Geology, and as an associate editor of American Mineralogist and the Geological Society of America Bulletin. In 2000, Morrison was named Sigma Chi Professor of the Year and received Sigma Gamma Epsilon’s Excellence in Teaching Award. She received the USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2002.

Morrison previously served as vice provost for graduate programs and as an associate dean in the graduate school at USC. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1988; her M.S. from the University of Georgia in 1983; and her B.A. from Colgate University in 1980.