Elon University - Office of the Provost

About Dr. Steven D. House
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dr. Steven D. House assumed duties as Elon University's Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs on June 1, 2009. He has been an integral part of developing the university’s national reputation since coming to Elon from Seton Hall University in 2001, when he was named the founding dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences. House joined the president’s senior staff in 2006 when he was given the additional title of associate vice president for academic affairs.

As dean of Elon College, House provided leadership for 17 academic departments and 19 academic programs. The number of Elon College faculty increased by 50 percent during his tenure as dean, and the number of students majoring in the liberal arts grew from 37 percent of the overall student body to 46 percent. House helped develop the Elon College Fellows Program and collaborated with the Division of Student Affairs to expand Elon’s living-learning communities.

He has worked closely with faculty to develop Elon’s application to shelter a Phi Beta Kappa chapter at the university, assessing where academic programs needed to be strengthened, developing an action plan and implementing changes. As co-chair of Elon’s long-range planning subcommittee on sciences, he has conducted feasibility studies, hired consultants, developed budget models and presented options to the board of trustees.

House is a member of Elon’s budget committee, director of the Elon College Fellows Living-Learning Community Committee, and has served on numerous other university committees. He chaired the search committee for the dean of Elon’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business in 2007. House also currently serves as a member of the university’s strategic planning committee.

House earned his bachelor of science degree in biology in 1977 from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. He completed his doctorate in physiology with honors six years later at the University of Arizona. He served at Columbia University from 1983 to 1986 as a postdoctoral fellow in physiology and cellular biophysics.

After working as an associate research scientist at Columbia, House joined Seton Hall University in New Jersey in 1987, teaching courses in biology, physiology, pharmacology and anatomy. He was named director of health professions in 1994 and associate dean of Seton Hall’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1997. He received Seton Hall’s Student Choice Award for outstanding teaching, the university’s Outstanding Service Award, the Trustees’ Scholarship Award and a Special Appreciation Award for teaching and advising.

An active scientist and researcher, House has authored scores of articles and presentations on blood flow regulation during health and disease. He received a major National Institute of Health research award on microvascular cell dynamics, and received a visiting expert award from the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, Republic of China, and the Grega-Zacharkow Young Investigator Award from the Microcirculatory Society.

House is a member of several professional societies, including the Piedmont Triad Higher Education Innovations Council, the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, the American Physiological Society, and Phi Kappa Phi national honor society.

House is married to Patricia Burgh House. The other Dr. House, as she is known, has a doctorate in higher education and is a senior vice-president with Graham-Pelton Consulting.