Dr. Pamela Whitten joined the University of Georgia as its Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost in 2014 following a national search.

As the chief academic officer at UGA, she oversees instruction, information technology, public service and outreach, research, and student affairs. The vice presidents of these five areas report to her, as do the deans of UGA’s 17 schools and colleges as well as the campus dean of the Augusta University/UGA Medical Partnership. Associate provosts for academic fiscal affairs, academic programs, faculty affairs, the Honors Program, institutional diversity, international education and the libraries also report to her, as does the vice provost for academic affairs.

During her tenure as Provost, Whitten has worked with UGA President Jere W. Morehead to spearhead a number of enhancements to the learning environment, including increasing the number of academic advisers, hiring new faculty in fields that are of emerging statewide and global significance, and expanding experiential learning opportunities—such as research, internships and travel-study—for students. In addition, she has launched a campus-wide initiative to streamline the management of grants for research and other sponsored activities, with the ultimate goal of enabling faculty to maximize their research productivity and scholarly impact.

Prior to being named Provost at UGA, Whitten was Dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University. She is an internationally recognized expert in the field of telemedicine—the remote delivery of health care services and information—who has conducted her research with nearly $30 million in funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Commerce. She has co-authored two books and published more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters.

In addition to her role as Provost at UGA, she holds tenured faculty appointments jointly in three departments: advertising and public relations in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, health policy and management in the College of Public Health, and communication studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

She holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Kansas, a master’s degree in organizational communication from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor’s degree in business magna cum laude from Tulane University.