Seton Hall Univ. appoints assistant provost and dean of continuing and professional education

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — On Jan. 3, Seton Hall will welcome Mary Kate Naatus to the position of assistant provost and dean of continuing and professional education.

In this role, she will be responsible for the recently reorganized Division of Continuing and Professional Education. As dean, she will oversee the development and implementation of divisional goals, including expansion of online programming; growth of programmatic offerings; creation of strategic domestic and international partnerships; and optimization of summer offerings with expected growth. Naatus will report to the provost and work closely with assistant and associate provosts. 

Naatus comes to Seton Hall from Saint Peter’s University, where she has served for 12 years, including the last five as KPMG dean of the Frank J. Guarini School of Business. She is the founding director of the Ignite Institute at Saint Peter’s, a center of excellence that cultivates entrepreneurship and community partnerships that benefit local nonprofit organizations and businesses.   

“I am thrilled Dean Naatus will be joining Seton Hall,” said Katia Passerini, provost and executive vice president. “She brings more than two decades of college teaching and broad experience leading online and hybrid courses, as well as immersion and service courses in Europe, Latin America and Asia. “Her experience also includes fundraising, grant writing, external relations and administration, and two years of international development in Central America.”

Naatus earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from The College of New Jersey; an MBA from New Jersey Institute of Technology; and a Ph.D. in global affairs with a concentration in international management from Rutgers University. 

“I am eagerly looking forward to leading Seton Hall’s reorganized Division of Continuing and Professional Education,” Naatus said. “The division has tremendous potential to bring the university’s Catholic educational excellence to students across the higher education spectrum in dynamic new ways. … It is exciting to join Seton Hall at a time when its stature is advancing among the county’s leading universities.”

  NJIT, Rutgers, Seton Hall University