Rachel Croson, a current dean at Michigan State University, is the third of four candidates to fill the role of the University of Minnesota’s executive vice president and provost.

With a degree from the University of Pennsylvania in economics and philosophy and two more in economics from Harvard University, Croson has been the dean of the College of Social Science at Michigan State since 2016.

As a dean at Michigan State, Croson led a strategic planning effort for her college, which led to a 66 percent increase in philanthropy. Outreach has been a significant part of a systemwide strategic planning effort currently underway at the University of Minnesota.

“I think higher education is going through a crisis of confidence,” Croson told WKAR, a public radio station at Michigan State, earlier this year. “I think we need to do a much better job as faculty and leaders at an institution and across the industry in communicating the importance of what we do.”

Croson taught at Penn for 13 years starting in 1994, is published in more than 70 times in peer reviewed journals and has been an editor of several economic journals.

She will make her case to the University community at a public forum at Northrop Auditorium on Monday morning. 

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Rachel Croson’s name.