Dave Weatherspoon is the vice provost of Enrollment and Academic Strategic Planning and a professor of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics. His administrative portfolio includes leadership of 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.

Weatherspoon most recently served as the Assistant Provost of Academic Strategic Planning. Prior to this, he was the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the Office of the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education with coordinated efforts with the Office of the Associate Provost for Academic Services, Enrollment Management, and Academic Initiatives. His focus at that time was to develop policy and lead projects that leveraged MSU’s recruitment, admissions, and financial aid resources to decrease opportunity gaps and improve graduation outcomes for all MSU students.

Weatherspoon’s research focused on creating knowledge, business solutions and policy options to address the gnarly and persistent issues related to poverty and hunger. He has extensive experience in applied economics, with theoretical and teaching foci in organizational structure, policy analysis, and decision-making, along with practical experiences leading and evaluating multimillion dollar grant projects. As an applied economist for more than 28 years, Weatherspoon is experienced in identifying, analyzing and organizing in ways that address complex university, business, non-governmental organization, donor and government agency issues.

Weatherspoon earned his B.S. in Crop and Soil Science from MSU; his M.S. in Agricultural Economics from The Pennsylvania State University; and his Ph.D. in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He arrived at MSU in 1998 as an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics and became a full professor in 2011. He was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at MSU’s 2021 Excellence in Diversity Recognition and Awards Program, for his many years of mentoring students, staff and faculty.