About the Provost

Provost Mandel Portrait in Suit smiling with arms crossed

Provost Gregory N. Mandel

Gregory N. Mandel is the senior vice president, provost and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law at Temple University. As the university’s chief academic officer, he works with faculty and leadership to set the academic strategy and vision for the university’s future. His portfolio includes overseeing the university’s 17 schools and colleges; academic, faculty and student affairs; enrollment management; diversity, equity and inclusion; research; global engagement; information technology; and university strategic planning. During his tenure, Provost Mandel has appointed a diverse team of new university leaders, including deans, vice presidents and vice provosts, who are making meaningful contributions to Temple’s bright future.

Higher Education Thought Leadership

Provost Mandel speaking at Mazur Hall

Appointed to his current role in 2021, Provost Mandel is focused on delivering the promise of an exceptional and affordable education.

Provost Mandel worked with stakeholders across the university and beyond to develop a strategic plan that creates a passionate vision to define and elevate Temple’s educational value and access, thought leadership and community engagement. Created with a people-first approach, the strategic plan represents more than structure and process to Provost Mandel. It deliberately reflects Temple’s values.

FOCUSED INITIATIVES

Interdisciplinary Education and Research

Provost Mandel is committed to supporting and encouraging interdisciplinary teaching and research collaborations, especially those that bring diverse groups of people together to solve societal problems.

Provost Mandel at University Commencement

In 2022, Temple generated more than 300 million in research expenditures, an all-time high for the university. Provost Mandel continues to build on this momentum and has advanced several initiatives that encourage interdisciplinary activity, including: establishing the Temple University Research Council to identify new growth opportunities and bring recognition to research activities and programs; distributing University Strategic Funds to help support new interdisciplinary engagements between schools and colleges, including for new academic programs, research, health equity initiatives and community engagement; and creating an interdisciplinary collaboration task force to identify practical, financial and historical barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration and to provide recommendations to enrich and expand opportunities in research and academic programs.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Temple University is committed to building a diverse educational community founded on respect, open-mindedness and the appreciation of others.

Hooter the Owl at New Student Convocation in the Liacouras Center

To advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, Provost Mandel is focused on student, faculty, and staff recruitment, retention, and support; creating premier opportunities and spaces for activities and efforts; and expanding community pathways. During his time as Provost, Temple successfully welcomed the most ethnically and geographically diverse first-year classes in its recorded history.

 

Diversity sticker
IDEAL offices on Main campus

The Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy, and Leadership (IDEAL) held an open house in April 2023 to celebrate the new location in the heart of campus.

Mental Health and Wellness

Provost Mandel speaking with University Honors students

The mental health and wellness of the university community is at the center of Provost Mandel’s priorities at Temple University. He has advanced new initiatives including, establishing a new Health and Well-being Division, which serves as a primary entry point for all services related to health and wellness for students, faculty, and staff.

He has also increased resources to expand mental health services for students and added a new location for counseling at the Health Sciences Campus.

Global Engagement

Temple University's Rome Campus

Temple University's Rome Campus

Global engagement has been rooted in the Temple experience for decades, and the university offers many meaningful opportunities. With campuses in Tokyo and Rome, Provost Mandel is building partnerships, programs, and new connections between Philadelphia and our academic communities around the world.

Temple University’s Japan campus in Tokyo.

Temple University’s Japan campus in Tokyo.

Advancing Legal Education, Research and Practice

 Provost Mandel speaks with students during move-in week.

These days, you will likely find Provost Mandel on campus meeting with faculty and students, dedicating his time to advancing key university priorities, and cheering on Temple’s athletes.

With an interdisciplinary background combining physics and law, research and pedagogy, and practice and community service, Provost Mandel has built a career that demonstrates the value of cross-disciplinary engagement.

Provost Mandel and students from Beasley School of Law

Provost Mandel and students from Beasley School of Law

With deep roots in Philadelphia, Provost Mandel returned to his hometown in 2007 to join the faculty at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. He would later serve as dean of the Beasley School of Law for five years.

Provost Mandel is a leading international scholar on intellectual property law, innovation, and the intersection of law and technology. He is the author of more than 50 scholarly publications, including multiple intellectual property and patent law articles that were identified as the best of the year three times. His article Patently Non-Obvious was identified as one of the most cited patent law articles over a decade, and his experimental studies have been cited by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and in briefs filed before the United States Supreme Court.

Before entering academia, Provost Mandel practiced law with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, clerked for Judge Jerome Farris, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and interned with Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

He received his JD from Stanford Law School and his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University with a double major in physics and astronomy. Prior to attending law school, he worked on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.