Laurie Stenberg Nichols, a longtime dean at SDSU, was named as the next provost and vice president for academic affairs by President David Chicoine this morning.

“I am simply thrilled to be returning to SDSU as provost,” Nichols said in a press release. “I appreciate the confidence the campus community has placed in me.”

Nichols, an SDSU alumna, took leave this last year from her position as dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at SDSU so she could be the interim president at Northern State University.

Due to this experience as an administrator, Chicoine said Nichols will be an asset to SDSU in her new position.

“Laurie Nichols has been an outstanding administrator at South Dakota State and more recently at Northern State, and I am pleased that she will serve this university as its provost,” Chicoine said in the release. “Dr. Nichols emerged among the strongest candidates from a national search, and I’m not surprised. She exhibits the talent and capabilities needed to be an outstanding provost.”

Nichols will start her new duties as provost on July 1. She will succeed Carol Peterson, who has served as the university’s chief academic officer since 1987.