Dr. Waded Cruzado

President, Montana State University

Dr. Waded Cruzado has served as the 12th president of Montana State University since 2010. Known for her expertise on the role of the public university and on the Morrill Act, she is a champion of the tripartite land-grant mission of education, research, and outreach, as well as the role higher education plays in the lives of people and the prosperity of the nation.

Under Cruzado’s leadership, MSU has become the fastest growing and largest university in Montana, with enrollment topping 16,000, the highest graduation and retention rates seen in a generation, a steadily growing research enterprise with expenditures in 2020 at $167 million, and numerous major construction and renovations projects.

Cruzado has been honored as a Michael P. Malone Educator of the Year from the Montana Ambassadors and as a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International. The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities awarded Cruzado the Seaman A. Knapp Memorial Lectureship in 2012 in honor of the founder of the Cooperative Extension Service.

In November 2020, Cruzado was selected to chair the board of directors for the APLU. In addition, President Cruzado serves on the boards of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, American Council of Education, Campus Compact, International Student Exchange Program, Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, PayneWest Insurance, US Bank, and The Burton K. Wheeler Center.

Cruzado holds a doctorate in the humanities from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is originally from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.