Dr. Cheryl Matherly has joined the Lehigh community as the university’s vice president and vice provost for international affairs.

Matherly comes to Lehigh from the University of Tulsa, where she served as vice provost for global education. She replaces Gary Sasso, dean of the College of Education, who was appointed to the position in an interim role on October 1, 2015.

Among her many accomplishments, Matherly has been credited with leading the development of the University of Tulsa’s strategic plan for internationalization; greatly expanding study abroad opportunities; helping create the Faculty Internationalization Grant program for faculty development and directing efforts to develop new collaborations in China. During her tenure at Tulsa, Matherly remained active in the classroom as an applied assistant professor in the department of educational studies. She has authored or co-authored three books, numerous chapters and journal articles. 

Before arriving at Tulsa, Matherly served as assistant dean of students for career and international education and as director of the career services center at Rice University in Houston. She has an Ed.D. in education from the University of Houston, an M.S. in college student personnel administration from Indiana University and a B.A. in English literature and political science from the University of New Mexico.

“I think this is a really exciting time to come into the university, as Lehigh is finishing the celebrations of its 150^th anniversary,” Matherly said recently. “When you celebrate that kind of a milestone, it’s the opportunity to reflect on who you are, your history, how you got to that point. But what’s exciting is that this is also the beginning of a process of really envisioning a future of what the next 150 years are going to look like. ... It’s clear that global engagement is part of that future in a really strategic way. So what I’m most excited about is getting here and being part of that process of really envisioning that future and moving things forward.”

Soon after her appointment last year, Matherly sat down with President John Simon and Provost Pat Farrell to discuss the importance of international education. Read their conversation here.