Sheri Everts

Sheri Noren Everts will officially join Illinois State University on July 1 as vice president for Academic Affairs and provost.  “I expect to learn as much about Illinois State and its excellent academic programs as soon as possible,” she said, “and to support the campus in achieving the goals of Educating Illinois.” Everts said Illinois State’s impressive national reputation along with its prominence in teacher education, its Center for the Study of Educational Policy, Center for Reading and Literacy and achievements in civic engagement were instrumental in her interest in the Illinois State position.

Everts’ last position was as interim senior vice chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.  She received her bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education, master’s degree in literacy education and English and Ph.D. in administration, curriculum and instruction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Everts’s husband, Jay Noren, will begin his tenure as Wayne State University’s 10th president in August, and the couple expect to benefit from each other’s professional experiences.  “Our schedules will be intense, but exciting,” said Everts.  “We’ll both have the personal pleasure of enjoying events at two dynamic universities, with Jay joining me for events at Illinois State.  I will occasionally join him for special events in Detroit. We will be doing our part for the airline industry and its economic recovery by taking one of the four direct flights every day between Bloomington/Normal and Detroit.”

Everts and Noren have four children, a daughter at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who is an international studies major, a son at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who is a broadcasting major and two sons who both work in Madison, Wis.  She enjoys reading, watching movies and running.  While running to Everts surely means pounding the local pavement or Constitution Trail in Bloomington/Normal in her running shoes, it likely will be an apt description of her professional and personal life for the foreseeable future.