Neeli Bendapudi to serve as Penn State’s next president

Story posted December 9, 2021 in CommRadio, News by Jake Starr

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Board of Trustees has appointed Neeli Bendapudi as the next president of Penn State. Bendapudi will succeed current President Eric Barron when he retires in June 2022.

Bendapudi will be the 19th president in school history. She currently serves as the president of the University of Louisville. Barron has served as Penn State’s president since 2014.

She has served as Louisville’s president since the spring of 2018. Bendapudi will be the first woman and person of color to hold Penn State’s highest office.

After being born in India, Bendapudi moved to the United State and spent time at the University of Kansas, Ohio State and Texas A&M. She earned her Ph. D at Kansas. Prior to serving as the president of Louisville, Bendapudi was the dean of Kansas’ School of Business and then in 2016 she became the provost and executive vice chancellor at Kansas.

The search for Penn State’s next president had been underway since February of this year when Barron announced his retirement.


Jake Starr is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jas7954@psu.edu.

Tagged in:

eric barron , louisville , neeli bendapudi , penn state , president

About the Contributors

Jake Starr's photo

Jake Starr

Senior / Broadcast Journalism

Jake Starr is a soon-to-be graduate from Penn State. He has spent the last year and a half as the general manager of CommRadio, where he helped oversee all seven departments and over 200 members. Prior to that, Jake worked as the station’s news director. In addition, he is a play-by-play broadcaster with experience calling nine sports across various outlets. In addition to calling games for CommRadio, Jake has called games for Big Ten Plus and ESPN+ for Bucknell University. For the last two summers, he has worked in summer collegiate baseball. Most recently, Jake served as a broadcaster for the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League. You can follow Jake on Twitter @jstarr1999 and email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!