Dave Weatherspoon, Ph.D., serves as MSU’s vice provost of Enrollment and Academic Strategic Planning and a professor of agricultural, food and resource economics. He leads the university’s enrollment services units: Office of the Registrar, Office of Admissions, Office of Financial Aid and University Curriculum Catalog; Academic Services Budget and Personnel; and Academic Strategic Plan Implementation.
Previously, Weatherspoon served as the assistant provost of Academic Strategic Planning and as the associate dean of Undergraduate Studies in the MSU Office of the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education. His efforts have helped to leverage MSU’s recruitment, admissions, and financial aid resources to decrease student opportunity gaps and improve graduation outcomes.
Weatherspoon arrived at MSU in 1998 as an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics. He came to MSU from Florida A&M University.
An applied economist, Weatherspoon is experienced in identifying, analyzing, and organizing in ways that address complex university, business, non-governmental organization, donor, and government agency issues. His research has focused on creating knowledge, business solutions, and policy options to address poverty and hunger. Weatherspoon has led agribusiness programs and research and evaluation teams for the World Bank, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development, global research institutes, and more.
A Cass County 4-H’er, Weatherspoon’s 4-H experience led him to MSU where he earned a bachelor’s degree in crop and soil sciences. He later earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Penn State and a doctorate in food and resource economics from the University of Florida, Gainesville.
In 1986, Weatherspoon and others created a student organization called Minorities in Agriculture at MSU, which eventually became the national Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (commonly known as MANRRS). He has received the 2021 MSU Lifetime Achievement Award; the 2020 MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award; the 2014 National Role Model Faculty Mentor Award from Minority Access Inc.; and the 2010 MANRRS Legend Award.
