Claudia Petrescu

Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dean of the Graduate School

Claudia A. Petrescu joined Kansas State University's as its first vice provost for graduate education who also serves as dean of the university's Graduate School starting January 2021. In this role, Dr. Petrescu provides strategic leadership and vision to help advance graduate education in directions consistent with K-State's goals and priorities and the evolving role of graduate education in the 21st century.

Prior to joining Kansas State University, Petrescu served as Oakland University's dean of graduate education from 2015-2019 and was a professor of public administration and nonprofit management. Before joining Oakland, Petrescu was at Eastern Michigan University where she was a professor of public administration and nonprofit management; faculty associate for policy and procedure at the Graduate School from 2014-2015; assistant to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for strategic planning from 2009-2015; program director of the university's National Leadership Alliance program from 2004-2014; and interim head of the political science department from 2005-2007. Petrescu also joined the Department of Political Science’s faculty.

Among Petrescu's honors are serving as an American Council of Education, or ACE, fellow from May 2018 to June 2019. She has 14 peer-reviewed publications in a variety of journals, including the International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, International Leadership Journal, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and more, and has presented her work across the world.

Petrescu earned her doctorate from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She earned a master's degree in social and public policy from Duquesne University and a master's in economics from Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. She also completed post-graduate studies in international affairs at the National School of Public Administration and International Relations, also in Romania. Petrescu is fluent in Romanian and Hungarian.