Dr. Katrina Bell-Jordan became the Interim President of NEIU on July 3, 2023. She called the almost two months since then a “whirlwind.” She said she is thankful for the “tremendous opportunity,” and “tremendous amount of encouragement and support” she has received.

Dr. Bell-Jordan earned a Ph.D. in Rhetorical Studies and Media Studies, a Master’s in Rhetorical Studies, and a Bachelor’s in News Editorial Journalism from the Ohio University system. She came to NEIU as an associate professor in 1997, teaching in the Communications, Media and Theater Department.

In 2018, she moderated an interview with  Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein here at NEIU in what she called a “pinch me” moment. It was one of the highlights of her career.

She became the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Science (CAS) in 2017 before becoming the permanent dean in March 2020, after which she helped to lead many of NEIU’s COVID-19 related task forces, including creating a Continuity of Operations Plan for CAS, and sharing oversight of the 2020-2021 Return to Campus.

When asked about how NEIU can heal from the previous administration, Bell-Jordan spoke openly, “I don’t think we should marinate or relitigate the past forever, but I do think acknowledging unresolved issues… is really a key to building a trusting relationship,” Bell-Jordan said. “And I say ‘trusting’ with an ‘ING’ because I think it’s always a process.”

“No one individual, no interim president, no permanent president… can connect the university,” Bell-Jordan said. “This is a joint effort.”

While NEIU has traditionally served transfer students, recruitment has shifted to focus on full-time freshman students, with some thinking it a betrayal of NEIU’s mission.

“I see it as a dance, moreso, than a tension,” Bell-Jordan said. She said that, when she first started at NEIU, the university served many different student populations without difficulty.

“We were a destination location for so many of our two-year institutions,” Bell-Jordan said. “We weren’t hitting the pavement, trying to cultivate those relationships because students… at all the city colleges came to Northeastern… But I think we stopped the dance and we started more singularly focusing on one population instead of the other.”

“What we have to do is to choreograph that dance as we think about our recruitment,” she said.

Dr. Bell-Jordan was also asked about her role in attracting applicants to apply for the position of permanent president.

“The first thing, I think, this year is placing strong academic leadership in key places, not just to keep seats warm, but to move these areas forward, so that a new potential president comes in and sees it.”

Dr. Bell-Jordan’s administration has made multiple high-level appointments within, including Dr. R. Shayne Cofer as Interim Provost, Dr. Effie Kritikos as Associate Provost and University Contract Administrator and Dr. Tim Libretti as Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Science, to name a few.

“Many of them are interim, but the term ‘interim’ is a functional term,” Bell-Jordan said of the appointments. “It is not a reflection of the lack of strength of that person’s leadership, the experience and expertise that they bring in the current moment.”

She said of any potential applicants, “They want to join a university where there’s people who are moving the university forward, no matter who’s at the top.”

“Northeastern is an extraordinary opportunity,” Dr. Bell-Jordan said. “We have an extraordinary student population that we serve, we have world-faculty, excellent programs, a beautiful campus and a mission that, I think, is more than substantial for an individual wanting to make a difference in their professional lives.”