Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
As chief academic officer, the provost has responsibility for over 360 full-time faculty and librarians and more than fifty degree programs offered through seven schools. The Office of Academic Affairs allocates resources and administers policies that undergird faculty work with highly talented undergraduates and graduate students at a college characterized by a collaborative, engaged, rigorous intellectual community. To this end, the provost, reporting to the president, leads strategic planning.
Dr. Suzanne McCotter was appointed interim provost in February 2024. She previously served as the Dean of Graduate and Continuing Education and the Dean of the School of Education at The College of New Jersey. She holds a Ph.D. in Middle School Education from the University of Georgia along with a B.A. and M.L.S. from Rutgers University. Her areas of interest include professional development, innovative teacher and leader preparation, and school-university collaboration.
Dr. McCotter came to The College of New Jersey in 2017. Under her leadership, School of Education initiatives include diversifying the teacher workforce, environmental sustainability education, and working with urban middle schools. In 2021, she worked with the NJ Pandemic Relief Fund and the Overdeck Family Foundation to create the New Jersey Tutoring Corps, meeting student learning needs resulting from the Covid-19 health emergency. She has offered testimony to the New Jersey Legislature on the teacher shortage and diversifying the teacher pipeline. Her focus on creativity, innovation, and responsiveness has resulted in stronger initiatives in the areas of Graduate and Continuing Education, including a grant from the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education to serve adult learners with Some Credits, No Degree and new interdisciplinary graduate degrees such the Masters of Professional Studies.
On the institutional level, Dr. McCotter led the Social Justice Taskforce, is part of the team that created the Center for Integrative Wellness, chaired searches for new Deans of the Schools of Business and Science, and supported numerous global initiatives for both undergraduate and graduate students. Outside of TCNJ, she has been a member of the NJ Association for School Administrators, the Trenton Public Education Foundation Board, the NJ Tutoring Corps Board, and the NJ Department of Education’s Title I Committee of Practitioners.
Before coming to TCNJ, Dr. McCotter served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the College of Education and Human Services at Montclair State University. Previously, she was a faculty member in Montclair’s Educational Leadership Program, chair of Montclair’s Counseling and Educational Leadership Department, and chair of the Department of Educational Foundations at Millersville University in Pennsylvania.
A New Jersey native, she began her career as a school media specialist in Rahway and teacher in Edison. As an active leader in teacher education for the past 13 years, she holds a deep understanding of the policies and regulations surrounding K–12 education in our state and region.