Marion K. Underwood
Provost and Executive Vice President
Provost and Executive Vice President Marion K. Underwood is Colorado State University’s Chief Academic Officer and second in command within the University’s administration under President Amy Parsons. In addition to the Office of the Provost’s broad scope of vice provost reporting areas and key student and faculty success initiatives, Dr. Underwood oversees the deans of all eight academic colleges, the Libraries, and Graduate School; the offices of the Vice President for Research and the Vice President for Student Affairs; and the Office of the Chair of the Faculty Council.
Dr. Underwood joined CSU in 2024 from Purdue University, where she served as Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) and Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences. At Purdue, she led the college through a period of strong enrollment growth and increased student success, oversaw a research portfolio for the college of $32 million during the 2021-22 academic year, collaborated with the University Senate to create a new winter term, and led a universitywide cluster hire in Public Health, Health Equity, and Health Policy to attract faculty members to enhance expertise in diversity.
Prior to her work at Purdue, Dr. Underwood was a faculty member at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, then moved to the University of Texas at Dallas, where she served as a professor and administrator. During her tenure at UT-Dallas, she was named the Ashbel Smith Professor of Psychological Sciences and received the Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. She served as Associate Dean of programs and administration in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences before becoming Dean of graduate studies and Associate Provost.
As a foremost researcher in the developmental origins and outcomes of social aggression and how adolescents’ digital communication relates to adjustment, Dr. Underwood’s work has appeared in numerous scientific journals, and the National Institutes of Health supported her research program from 1995-2021. Beginning in 2003, she and her research group began conducting a longitudinal study on the origins and outcomes of social aggression and how adolescents use digital communication.
In 2003, Dr. Underwood authored the book “Social Aggression Among Girls.” In 2015, she was featured in the CNN Anderson Cooper 360 special report “#Being13: Inside the Secret World of Teens.” Dr. Underwood, an Association of Psychological Sciences Fellow, is a recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health’s FIRST Award as well as the NIMH Independent Scientist Mid-Career Award.
Dr. Underwood holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wellesley College, where she graduated magna cum laude with Honors in psychology, and a master’s degree and doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Duke University.