Mary Pedersen is currently serving as the Interim Director of the School of Education, at Colorado State University, a land-grant institution of higher education in Fort Collins, CO. She also served as the Provost and Executive Vice President from August 2020 until July 2022. Prior to this time, Dr. Pedersen has served in successive leadership roles at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA, for more than 30 years including Interim Provost, Senior Vice Provost, Vice Provost, and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Academic Programs and Planning. She brings extensive experience working on university strategic planning, accreditation, program review and assessment, curriculum development and planning. She was also involved in revision of General Education and campus implementation of the CSU Graduation Initiative 2025. She also served on faculty in Nutrition, as Department Head of Food Science & Nutrition, and Associate Dean in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences, leading policy and curriculum development, program assessment and review, faculty development and review. Dr. Pedersen holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from University of California, Santa Barbara and an M.S and Ph.D. in Nutrition and Lipid Biochemistry from University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focused on lipoprotein metabolism and cardiovascular disease.

Current Term

2022 – 2025