DR. TERESA K. WOODRUFF
PROVOST AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

 

Dr. Teresa Woodruff led Michigan State University “with resilience in challenging times.”  As all institutions, MSU was faced with the COVID pandemic, and pivoted thousands of faculty and students to on-line learning. Along with the Big Ten Academic Alliance, she continues to lead efforts to ensure best practices for student mental health services. She and her team are at the forefront of the National Academies Action Collaboration on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education.   The MSU Student Government gave her the accolade of a “hashtag #weloveourprovost.” 

During this challenging time MSU developed its Strategic Plan for 2030.  Provost Woodruff held listening sessions for the public across Michigan and led an exhausted campus to provide aspirational thinking and collaborative efforts to create a powerful plan. She led faculty through bylaws changes that strengthened campus governance in cases of egregious misconduct, as well as changes to faculty tenure with unanimous votes by the University Committee on Faculty Tenure, the University Committee on Academic Affairs and the Faculty Senate, with unanimous ratification by the Board of Trustees.  

An internationally recognized expert in ovarian biology Dr. Woodruff coined the term “oncofertility” to describe merging of two fields: oncology and fertility.  She holds over 15 U.S. Patents and was elected to the National Academy of Inventors.  Active in education at the professional level, and with high school students, she was presented the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mentoring in an Oval Office Ceremony by President Obama.  In 2021, she was featured as one of twelve women in the national best-selling book “Wonder Women of Science: Twelve Geniuses who are Currently Rocking Science, Technology and the World.”

Dr. Woodruff is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Society for Endocrinology Transatlantic Medal, and Mentor of the Year Award from the Society for the Study of Reproduction.