University Names Fatma Mili Interim Provost

Fatma Mili, PhD, has been named interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Montclair State University, effective January 2, 2026.

Mili will serve as interim provost in addition to her current role as interim dean of Montclair’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Mili will serve as the University’s lead academic officer and oversee Montclair’s Division of Academic Affairs with its 14 colleges and schools. She will replace acting provost and current Vice Provost for Research Stefanie Brachfeld, who had served in the role since October.

“Fatma Mili is a proven academic leader whose breadth of experience, strategic insight and deep commitment to student success make her exceptionally well suited to serve as interim provost,” saysMontclair State University President Jonathan Koppell. “I am grateful for her willingness to step into this role and confident she will continue to advance Montclair’s mission and values with both clarity and purpose.”

An experienced educator and academic leader, Mili joined Montclair in July from Grand Valley State University, where she served as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

There, she co-led a university-wide initiative to restructure advising and strengthen and integrate all student care and student success services, and spearheaded the restructuring of the College of Engineering and Computing creating two colleges, one for engineering and one for computing.

Prior leadership positions include serving as dean of the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she grew degrees awarded by 60%, and as a department chair and associate dean at Purdue University where she co-led the educational initiative that transformed the college of technology into the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, reversing a declining enrollment into unprecedented and sustained growth.

“I am honored to serve as interim provost and am grateful for the trust President Koppell and Montclair State University have placed in me,” says Mili. “Over the past six months as Dean, I have seen firsthand that Montclair is a place where imagination meets impact. I look forward to working with our exceptional faculty and staff to accelerate our tradition of innovation. Together we will design new, responsive academic programs and experiences that meet the needs of a changing world and ensure our students achieve life-changing outcomes. Together, we will continue to expand the boundaries of what a public research university can be.”

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