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Tony Atwater was appointed the fifth president of Norfolk State University on April 22, 2011. He previously served as a Senior Fellow of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, a leadership association serving more than 400 public colleges and universities nationwide.

Atwater served as president and chief executive officer at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), a comprehensive, doctoral/research university. It is the fifth largest university in Pennsylvania and the largest within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. As president, he led a population of more than 14,600 students and nearly 1,700 employees; oversaw an annual university budget of $220 million; and supported six academic colleges and the School of Graduate Studies and Research. He also directed operations at three regional campuses.

Prior to serving as IUP president, he served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Youngstown State University in Ohio. In this capacity, he oversaw academic programs, academic policy and academic assessment. He also provided leadership and strategic direction to approximately 750 faculty members, serving six academic colleges, the School of Graduate Studies and Research, and the library.

Other administrative assignments have included serving as dean of the College of Professional Studies and Education at Northern Kentucky University; chairperson of the Rutgers University Department of Journalism and Mass Media; and special assistant to the provost at the University of Connecticut. He also served as associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Toledo.

Throughout his career, Atwater has assumed significant community leadership roles. These efforts include serving on the Governor’s Task Force on Youth and Substance Abuse Prevention in Kentucky; the Board of Trustees of the Northwest Ohio Public Television Foundation; and the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the 2000-01 delegation of Leadership Cincinnati and the Advisory Board of KeyBank in the Northeast Ohio Region. Additionally, he was past president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

A native of Nashville, Tenn., Atwater earned a Ph.D. in communication research from Michigan State University in 1983, where he was the recipient of a competitive doctoral fellowship. He completed post-doctoral studies in the Department of Communication at the University of Michigan in 1989. He also earned a bachelor's degree in mass media arts from Hampton University in 1973. Additionally, he holds three graduate certificates in higher education administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Atwater is a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and is the author of approximately 30 refereed journal articles on news selection behavior in the mass media—the subject of his research interests.

  Tony Atwater, Ph.D., Curriculum Vitae