Academic Affairs

​La Vonne J. Cornell-Swanson

La Vonne J. Cornell-Swanson currently serves as the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

La Vonne comes to UW-Stevens Point from St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, where she was associate provost for faculty and student affairs since 2016. She also served as provost designee, overseeing operations in the Division of Academic Affairs.

La Vonne has served in a variety of higher education leadership roles since 1994, including several in Wisconsin. She worked for UW System Administration as director and associate professor for the Office of Professional and Instructional Development. Among strategic initiatives there, she led development of the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program and the Wisconsin Task Force for Access to Success for Native American Students.

She taught social work as a faculty member at UW-Eau Claire for 15 years, was tenured in the Department of Social Work, and served as interdisciplinary faculty in Women's Studies and American Indian Studies. She also taught at UW-Whitewater, where she received her bachelor's degree in social work.

At St. Cloud State, she led a process to design four accelerated graduate degree options for adult returning students. She also managed its Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and division for online and distance learning.

La Vonne earned her Ph.D. in cultural and linguistic anthropology from UW-Milwaukee. She received her master's in social work from the University of Oklahoma.

She grew up in Kenosha, Wis., the first in her family to graduate from college.

You may reach La Vonne at acadaff@uwsp.edu or (715) 346-4686.