Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., provides leadership for academic quality, health-related issues, research, and student engagement. She joined the Texas State University System in September 2026. Prior to that, she served as Vice President and Provost at Baylor University for seven years, overseeing its 12 colleges and schools and its research enterprise. During her tenure, Baylor achieved R1 status from the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education in 2021, and external research expenditures grew from $12.5 million to $45 million annually. She led significant growth in graduate and professional programs, expanding enrollment to nearly 3,000 students, and co-led the development of Baylor in Deeds, the university's strategic plan for 2024–2030. Under her leadership, four-year graduation rates rose 10 percentage points and philanthropic giving to Academic Affairs grew from $82 million to more than $130 million annually.
Before Baylor, Dr. Brickhouse served as Provost of Saint Louis University (2015–2019), where she strengthened faculty development and collaborated with the Chief Financial Officer to oversee a university-wide operations review that generated $28 million in savings. She led a task force that developed plans for a new $50 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building. Four-year graduation rates rose from 66% to 73% during her tenure, and SLU received the 2018 Lee Noel Levitz Retention Excellence Award.
Dr. Brickhouse spent nearly two decades in academic leadership at the University of Delaware, culminating in her appointment as Interim Provost (2012–2013), where she held fiduciary responsibility for roughly half of the university's $1 billion operating budget and guided the campus through Hurricane Sandy. As Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs (2013–2015) and Deputy Provost (2011–2012), she served as chief advisor to the provost on academic affairs, international programs, and institutional research. She also served as Interim Dean (2011) and Deputy Dean (2008–2011) of the College of Education and Human Development, where she raised the college's U.S. News & World Report graduate ranking, grew sponsored research activity, and led the development of new degree programs, including a joint Ph.D. in Economics Education. Dr. Brickhouse joined the University of Delaware faculty in 1994 and was promoted to Professor in the School of Education in 2002.
Dr. Brickhouse holds a Ph.D. in Science Education and an M.S. in Chemistry from Purdue University, where she was a David Ross Fellow, and a B.A. in Chemistry from Baylor University, where she graduated magna cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She has held faculty appointments as Professor in the School of Education at Baylor University, Saint Louis University, and the University of Delaware.