Academic Leaders

Office of the Provost

Advancing Education to Meet Real-World Challenges

As the landscape of higher education shifts to meet evolving student needs, the University of Denver is in a prime position to deliver the learning and outcomes that students require to succeed. Together, we create and advance initiatives that enhance the quality of the education and life at DU in order to meet overarching challenges. 

Meet the University leaders who support our colleges, schools, departments, centers, institutes, faculty and students in our unified mission to make DU an outstanding place to advance knowledge.

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Meet the Office of the Provost

  • Mary Clark, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor

    Mary Clark serves as the provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of Denver. With expertise in the areas of higher education law, women’s legal history, legal ethics, judicial politics, and property, Provost Clark also holds an appointment as professor in the Sturm College of Law. Prior to being named provost at DU, Provost Clark served as interim provost, deputy provost, and dean of faculty at American University, associate dean for faculty & academic affairs at AU’s law school, director of its doctor of juridical science program, and acting director of its Law and Government Program. Before joining American University, Mary was a visiting lecturer and research scholar at Yale Law School, a Supreme Court fellow with the Federal Judicial Center, a teaching fellow and adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and an appellate attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C. She clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Montgomery, Alabama, following graduation from law school. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College (magna cum laude) and Harvard Law School, and publishes in the fields of women’s legal history and judicial politics. Provost Clark is excited about DU’s dynamic trajectory and looks forward to getting to know DU’s faculty, staff, and students.

Vice Provosts

  • Jennifer Karas, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

    Dr. Jennifer Karas serves as the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Denver. (Learn more about University Academic Programs.) She acts as the provost's chief advisor and representative in matters related to the curriculum and the credentials produced by the academic units. In this position, she advocates for all undergraduate and graduate academic programs, providing leadership to faculty and academic staff to ensure consistent quality standards in curriculum and programs that meet the needs of students and reflect the mission of the University. Dr. Karas joined the University of Denver as a lecturer in sociology in 1995, and was appointed to the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences dean's office in 2001, first as an assistant dean and then later promoted to associate dean. She joined the Office of the Provost in 2006 as an assistant provost, was promoted to associate provost in 2011, and most recently to Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. In this position, Jennifer oversees many high impact curricular and co-curricular programs that have the potential to reach all undergraduate students across the campus. Additionally, Jennifer oversees the undergraduate common curriculum and serves as the University liaison to this region's accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission. Jennifer earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Cornell University in 1999. She is a scholar of the sociology of immigration and ethnic group socioeconomic inequality. She is the author of Bridges and Barriers: Earning and Occupational Attainment Among Immigrants. Her areas of academic interest include: inequality and social change; immigration; racial and ethnic relations; life course and transition to adulthood; gender and family.

  • Linda Kosten, Senior Vice Provost for University Budget, Planning & Administration

    Dr. Linda Kosten has served DU for 29 years, since 2006 in the University’s Budget and Planning Office. She was appointed to lead the office in 2017. She manages the development of budget, coordinates program review and multi-year planning, works on the implementation of faculty employment practices and policies supported by the manager of academic operations, oversees the institutional research and analysis office and the campus partners business officers team. Linda received her bachelor’s degree from University of California Santa Cruz, and her MA and Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Denver.  Linda’s book, Decentralized Budgeting and the Academic Dean: Perspectives on the Effectiveness of Responsibility Center Management (2009), explores the effectiveness of RCM from the perspectives of 146 deans at 27 universities. She has consulted with other universities investigating a transition to decentralized budgeting, worked with the Lumina Foundation on investigating the connections between states’ outcomes-based funding policies and responsibility center management, and currently teaches in the higher education graduate program at DU on higher education finance.

  • Corrine Lengsfeld, Senior Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education

    Dr. Corinne Lengsfeld serves as the Senior Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education at the University of Denver. Corinne is deeply respected teacher, researcher, administrator and colleague who has been part of the DU community for 20 years. She has previously served as Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor. As a faculty member still active in research, Dr. Lengsfeld specializes in interdisciplinary research in meso- and micro-scale fluid systems. She served as Editor-in-Chief of Atomization and Sprays between 2009 and 2015. Her research has been cited more than 600 times with an H-index of 14. She has been awarded nearly five million dollars from agencies like NSF, DHHS, DOL, DOD, State of Colorado, Keck Futures and others. Corinne earned her bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California at Irvine and completed post-doctoral work at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

  • Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, Vice Provost for Internationalization

    Dr. Uttiyo Raychaudhuri serves as the Vice Provost for Internationalization. (Learn more about the Office of Internationalization). He is charged with leading the University of Denver’s internationalization programs, partnerships and services, as well as developing and implementing a comprehensive internationalization agenda. Dr. Raychaudhuri joined the University of Denver in January 2020 to lead the continued development of DU’s global strategies, community engagement, and teaching, worldwide. Dr. Raychaudhuri joins the University of Denver from Cornell University, where he served as the first executive director in the Office of Global Learning, providing leadership and vision for the university in global learning, study abroad, faculty-directed courses and programs, and international immigration and support services.

    Prior to his work at Cornell, Dr. Raychaudhuri also served as Director of Clemson Abroad at Clemson University and before that at the University of Georgia. He has successfully advocated for high-impact, evidence-based academic and global engagement as a key foundation of the universities strategic plan. Dr. Raychaudhuri has worked in the capacity of both faculty and administrator roles and been actively engaged in the field of international education for over 18 years. His leadership in education abroad programming has been recognized twice (2012 & 2014) with the IIE Andrew Heiskell Award for Best Practices and Innovation in International Education.

    Languages – native speaker, fluent:  Bengali, Hindi, English

  • Kate Willink, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

    Dr. Kate Willink is the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (VPFA) at the University of Denver. Kate has served for the last twelve years as a faculty member in DU's Department of Communication Studies and most recently served as the Faculty Director of DU's Office of Teaching and Learning. As VPFA, Kate advises DU leadership on a broad range of faculty affairs and professional development programs and services, including hiring, promotion, leadership development, and diversity initiatives for tenure-track, teaching-track, professional-track, and academic administrators. Through collaboration and innovation, Kate works closely with deans and department heads to support their work and to recruit and retain high-quality faculty, as well as to work with them to improve transparency, equity, and trust. Kate earned her bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies from Cornell university, her master’s from University of New Mexico, and her PhD in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

    Learn About the Role of the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs

Institutional Research & Analysis

  • Mike Furno, Assistant Provost, Institutional Research & Analysis

    Dr. Mike Furno is Assistant Provost for Institutional Research & Analysis and serves as the University’s chief institutional research and analytics officer (Learn more about the Office of Institutional Research & Analysis). Mike came to DU in 2002 and worked for six years as Assistant Director of Housing Operations in Campus Life before transitioning to Institutional Research & Analysis in 2011. As Assistant Provost, Mike works to ensure institutional data assets are used effectively as a strategic resource and directs a diverse portfolio of analytics, research, and assessment projects that inform planning and decision making across the University. Mike earned his BA in Psychology and MS in Engineering/Industrial Management from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and his Ph.D. in Research Methods & Statistics from the University of Denver. His dissertation research examined multidimensional, consecutive, and unidimensional approaches to measurement construction of relational well-being among adoptive parents using Rasch analysis.

    Assistant Provost, Institutional Research & Analysis
    Phone: 303-871-2361
    Email: mike.furno@du.edu

University Academic Programs

  • Leah O'Grady, Associate Director, CRM Communications

    Originally from the metro Atlanta area, Leah graduated from the University of Georgia with dual Bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Child and Family Development. Throughout her career, she developed a large interest in civic engagement initiatives, which eventually relocated her to Colorado for an adventurous year with AmeriCorps NCCC. Throughout this and other experiences, she became very passionate about working with young adults in identifying and realizing their civic, academic, and professional goals. This passion ultimately led her to complete the Higher Education MA program at the University of Denver in August 2016.

    Prior to working in University Academic Programs, Leah served as an Academic Advisor in the central Academic Advising office for two and a half years. Her role largely involved utilizing an academic coaching model to advise students on DU's curriculum, and assist with degree planning, interpreting university policies, and orienting students during their transition to campus. Prior to Academic Advising, she served as the Campus Visit Coordinator in Undergraduate Admission at DU, helping to assist over 40,000 students in navigating the college search process and in finding their ultimate collegiate home. Leah now resides in University Academic Programs, where she manages the First-Year Seminar program, the Undergraduate Research Center, the One Book One DU program, and Interterm programming.

  • Grace Warner, Program Coordinator for University Academic Programs

    Grace is a recent graduate from the University of Denver, class of 2018, with double Bachelor of Arts degrees in Biological Sciences and International Studies. She is originally from Indianapolis, IN and hopes in the future to pursue a graduate degree in Global or Public Health with a specialization in Microbiology or Virology. Grace hopes to integrate her knowledge of human biology and international relations to navigate difficult issues surrounding international health crises while pursuing her passion for community-based development and the environment. After spending the last four years pursuing her education at DU, Grace now looks forward to growing as a professional and giving back to the DU community. As Program Coordinator for University Academic Programs, Grace provides programmatic support for the First-Year Seminar program, the Undergraduate Research Center, the Office of Teaching and Learning, and Interterm programming.  

University Budget & Analysis

Administrative Support

Administrative Councils

The Provost meets with various special councils throughout the year in order to ensure we're meeting our goals and fostering an atmosphere of academic excellence.