{"id":211669,"date":"2026-06-05T16:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211669\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T16:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:09:08","slug":"new-chancellor-named-for-penn-state-scranton-wilkes-barre-hazleton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211669\/","title":{"rendered":"New chancellor named for Penn State Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Virginia Tech administrator has been tapped to lead Penn State\u2019s Commonwealth Campuses in Northeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Menah Pratt will be the regional chancellor for Penn State Hazleton, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, beginning Aug. 1, university officials announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

She currently serves as vice president for strategic affairs and professor of education at\u00a0 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Pratt\u2019s career has also included time at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Vanderbilt University.\n<\/p>\n

Penn State officials said in their announcement she brings extensive experience in higher education leadership, strategic planning, student success and community engagement, working with institutional leaders, faculty, staff and community partners to strengthen organizational effectiveness and expand higher education opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored to join Penn State and to serve the Hazleton, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre communities,\u201d Pratt said in a statement. \u201cThese campuses have longstanding traditions of student-centered education, community engagement and regional impact. I look forward to building on the conversations I began during the interview process and working alongside students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners to deepen and enhance the campuses\u2019 impact throughout northeastern Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her appointment comes as Penn State\u2019s presence in the region dwindles. Penn State\u2019s Board of Trustees voted in May of last year to close<\/a> seven of its Commonwealth Campuses \u2014including Penn State Wilkes-Barre \u2014 after the 2027 spring semester. The vote was pursuant to a university report detailing structural challenges facing the campuses, including declining enrollment, escalating operation costs, anemic state funding growth and a shrinking college-age population.<\/p>\n

The campuses have also had changing leadership at their helm. In August, the university announced that Elizabeth Wright would be leaving her role<\/a> as regional chancellor for the campuses, which she had held since 2024, but remain at Penn State as an associate professor of English. She had previously worked for two years as the chancellor of Penn State Hazleton.\n<\/p>\n

Penn State officials named Durell Johnson, Penn State Scranton\u2019s chief academic officer, as the interim regional chancellor in September. He was succeeded<\/a> by David M. Callejo P\u00e9rez, the chancellor and dean of Penn State Harrisburg, who was named interim chancellor in April.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Officials acknowledged Johnson and P\u00e9rez\u2019s leadership in their announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to Durell Johnson and David Callejo P\u00e9rez for their service and support of Penn State\u2019s northeast campuses throughout this transition period,\u201d Renata Engel, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor, said in a statement. \u201cTheir commitment to students, faculty and staff across the campuses provided invaluable continuity and support as we completed the search process.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Virginia Tech, Pratt has served as vice president for strategic affairs since 2016 and previously served as vice provost for inclusion and diversity. In those roles, she has led university-wide strategic planning efforts, supported enrollment and student success initiatives, and worked across academic and administrative units to guide institutional priorities and support shared governance efforts, Penn State officials said in their announcement.<\/p>\n

Prior to Virginia Tech, Pratt served as associate chancellor for strategic affairs and associate provost for diversity at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she worked on institutional strategy, governance and academic planning, while also helping to lead community engagement, workforce development and student pipeline initiatives, according to Penn State officials. Earlier in her career, she held leadership and legal affairs roles at Vanderbilt University. In addition to her administrative leadership experience, Pratt is a tenured faculty member and scholar whose work has focused on higher education, leadership and social change.<\/p>\n

She holds a doctorate and a master\u2019s degree in sociology and a law degree from Vanderbilt University, as well as a master\u2019s degree in literary studies and a bachelor\u2019s degree in English from the University of Iowa.<\/p>\n

As regional chancellor, officials said Pratt will work closely with faculty, staff, students and community partners to support academic excellence, student success and regional engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMenah is a highly accomplished academic leader whose career reflects a deep commitment to student success, institutional strategy and community engagement,\u201d Engel said in a statement. \u201cShe understands the important role Penn State\u2019s Commonwealth Campuses play in expanding opportunity and strengthening the regions they serve. I am confident she will provide thoughtful leadership for our northeast campuses while building strong relationships across the University and throughout the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Virginia Tech administrator has been tapped to lead Penn State\u2019s Commonwealth Campuses in Northeast Pennsylvania. Menah Pratt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2136,227,4434,6520,201,92825,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,181,2685],"class_list":["post-211669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-dunmore","tag-education","tag-hazle-township","tag-hazleton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-lehman-township","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt","tag-wilkes-barre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}