Lou Anna K. Simon served as the 20th president of Michigan State University from 2005 to 2018. She earned her doctorate at Michigan State in 1974 and held a variety of administrative roles at the university, including assistant provost for general academic administration, associate provost, and provost and vice president for academic affairs. She was appointed a John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in 2017 upon the recommendation of the MSU Board of Trustees.

As president, Simon engaged Michigan State in a strategic and transformative journey to adapt the principles of its land-grant heritage to 21st-century challenges. Her initiatives in learning, research, and international engagement reflected MSU’s commitment to applying knowledge to benefit society. She outlined these commitments and the philosophy behind them in her monograph, Embracing the World Grant Ideal: Affirming the Morrill Act for a Twenty-first-century Global Society.

Simon’s vision included building an inclusive and engaged academic community where every student graduated as a skilled and sought-after citizen-scholar. MSU’s Student Success initiative became an important component of  that effort, and its outcomes were reflected in Michigan State’s high standings for student engagement among public research universities.

With the support of external funding exceeding $580 million by 2018, Simon expanded MSU’s reach through its internationally regarded research in food, water, education and social sciences, engineering, and advanced physical sciences. She also led its commitment to working at the forefront of emerging opportunities in areas such as bioengineering, medicine and genomics, advanced mobility, and computation.