The Daily Bulletin Archive

I am pleased to announce that Melanie Perreault, associate provost at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland, has accepted my offer to serve as Buffalo State’s next provost and vice president for academic affairs. She will assume her new role on July 20.

Throughout the interview process, I was impressed with Dr. Perreault’s understanding and appreciation of the transformative education that Buffalo State has provided to generations of students.

Her strong skills and background in strategic planning, fostering and supporting academic excellence, and the development of both traditional and online programs indicated both to me and to the search advisory committee that she is a perfect complement to the needs of our college moving forward. I am confident that she will lead Academic Affairs to enhanced distinction regionally and nationally.

I invite you to read more about Dr. Perreault’s experience in the biography below.

I would like to thank the members of the search advisory committee for their dedicated service and thoughtful counsel throughout the process. Special appreciation is extended to search committee co-chairs David Carson and Hal Payne.

Lastly, please remember to mark your calendars for Wednesday, May 13, at 2:00 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall as we celebrate the wonderful career of Dennis Ponton, who will retire on June 30 after more than 37 years of service to Buffalo State.

About Melanie Perreault
As associate provost at Salisbury University—a position she has held since 2011—Melanie Perreault oversees the university’s honors program, the instructional design and delivery department, and all new program proposals. She also serves as a liaison between the University System of Maryland and Salisbury for academic policies and provides oversight for all the university’s satellite sites.

She recently led a campuswide effort to develop the university’s new five-year strategic plan, collaborating with faculty, staff, and students to set priorities and goals with deans and administration. Furthermore, she developed a web interface to facilitate inter-institutional accountability and transparency to better connect the university’s budgeting to the strategic plan. Perreault also served as co-chair of the university’s steering committee for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education reaccreditation process; wrote proposals to develop online M.B.A. and social work programs; implemented an online reporting system for faculty tenure and promotion; and successfully advocated to double the university’s faculty provisional development budget.

Perreault previously served as Salisbury’s interim vice president for academic affairs (2010–2011) and chair of the history department (2008–2010). A faculty member in Salisbury’s history department since 2000, she is an accomplished scholar in colonial American history. Her current research focuses on violence in the early Chesapeake. From 1997 to 2000, Perreault was an assistant professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas.

She earned her Ph.D. in history from the College of William and Mary in 1997 and her B.A. in history from Lawrence University in 1990.