Matt Lee to Serve as Interim Ä¢¹½tv President

May 19, 2025

BATON ROUGE –– Beginning July 1, Vice President for Agriculture and Dean Matt Lee will serve as Ä¢¹½tv’s interim president. Lee’s visionary leadership for both the Ä¢¹½tv AgCenter and College of Agriculture makes him an ideal fit to lead Ä¢¹½tv while the search for a new president is underway.

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Matt Lee

Prior to joining the Ä¢¹½tv AgCenter and College of Agriculture, he served in several leadership capacities at Ä¢¹½tv, including interim Executive Vice President and Provost, Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Support Services, and Senior Associate Vice President in the Office of Research and Economic Development. Prior to Ä¢¹½tv, he was a tenure-track faculty member at Mississippi State University, where he was affiliated with the Rural Health, Safety, and Security Institute.

“Matt’s long-term commitment to Ä¢¹½tv, paired with his research and leadership expertise, made him the obvious choice to lead the Ä¢¹½tv enterprise through this transitional phase,â€� said Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott Ballard. “Considering his exceptional performance as head of the Ä¢¹½tv AgCenter, his service as interim provost, his time with the Ä¢¹½tv Office of Research & Economic Development and his deep involvement in working to solve crime in Baton Rouge and Louisiana as a whole, I can’t imagine a better person to steer us through this time.â€�

Lee is a National Science Foundation CAREER award winner, social scientist, and community development scholar with extensive expertise in both rural and urban community dynamics. He earned both his master’s and Ph.D. from Ä¢¹½tv and is widely published in both academic and popular press outlets and has been elected to several scholarly honor societies.