Sheerer named provost

Dr. Marilyn Sheerer, a veteran leader at East Carolina University, has been named provost and senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs.

Chancellor Steve Ballard, announcing the appointment after a national search, said, “Marilyn Sheerer is a special person with a remarkable combination of ability, enthusiasm, experience and energy. She is an accomplished leader who is well known and respected throughout North Carolina, and she is exactly the right person to fill this critical role at the university.”

Sheerer, whose appointment was approved Wednesday by the Board of Trustees, had been serving as interim provost. She joined the university in 1996 as a professor and chair of the Department of Elementary and Middle Grades Education. She served as dean of the College of Education from 1998-2006 and has also led the university’s fund-raising operation and the Division of Student Life.

“I am honored by the confidence that Chancellor Ballard and the university have placed in me,” Sheerer said. “ECU has become my home, and I am very happy to be continuing my service here.”

Sheerer holds a bachelor’s degree from Bloomsburg State College in Pennsylvania, a master’s from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. from Ohio University. Before coming to ECU, she held faculty and administrative positions at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and Northern Illinois University.
Contact: John Durham, executive director of university communications, at
durhamj@ecu.edu or (252) 328-1469