Risa Palm has been the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at Georgia State University since September 2009. Prior, she served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the State University of New York, and held tenured faculty positions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Oregon, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Louisiana State University. Palm holds a B.A. in history, with a minor in French, a B.S. in social studies education, an M.A. in geography, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests are in urban geography, and she has done extensive work on the topics of natural hazards response and urban housing. She has published numerous books, monographs, and journal articles, and received research honors from the Association of American Geographers. She has also served on several panels and committees for both the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences, and is a past chair of the Council on Academic Affairs for the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU). She continues to hold board appointments with the APLU and was recently named to the board of the Association of Chief Academic Officers (ACAO).