Biography
Tina Q. Richardson joined the Penn State family in July 2015, as chancellor of the Lehigh Valley campus and has since focused her efforts on three key campus priorities: Academic Excellence, Campus Visibility, and Enrollment. To date, her most notable achievements in this role include strong enrollment growth, the initiation and impending completion of a $16 million campus expansion and serving as a driving force behind innovative Collective Impact partnerships with a local community college and the United Way, as well as the Collective Impact Scholarship Fund.
Richardson came to Penn State Lehigh Valley from Drexel University, where she served as associate dean of academic affairs at Drexel University’s School of Education, leading academic program development and evaluation, faculty professional development, and the promotion and tenure process. She also served as director of the University’s Assisted School efforts to improve K-12 public education in West Philadelphia’s Promise Zone, working to secure millions of dollars in funding for in- and -out-of-school time programming. She was also the founder of Drexel’s Critical Conversations in Urban Education lecture series.
Richardson is a long-term resident of the Lehigh Valley and served as a faculty member in Lehigh University’s College of Education for 20 years. She was also director of Lehigh’s counseling psychology program and a special assistant to the provost for a National Science Foundation-funded leadership initiative for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
In December of 2020, she graduated from the Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program and was a member of the 2015-2016 class of American Council on Education Institute for New Presidents. Her extensive leadership experience in education includes a fellowship with the American Council on Education,; directing the Higher Education Resource Services Summer Leadership Institute at Bryn Mawr College; leading various study abroad and global citizenship programs; serving as fellow of the State University of New York Global Center for Collaborative Online International Learning initiative; serving as a Fulbright Hayes Scholar in Ghana, West Africa; and leading short programs abroad for K-16 educators.
Richardson earned her bachelor’s in psychology, and master’s and doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland.
She also serves on the following boards: Building 21 Allentown Advisory Council; ESSA Bank & Trust – Board of Directors; Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network - Board of Trustees; Good Shepherd Penn Partners – Board of Directors; Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce – Executive Committee, Board of Governors, as well as African American Business Leadership Council; Lehigh Valley Community Foundation; Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation – Board of Directors; and the Lehigh Valley Partnership - Executive Committee.
She has been awarded the 2017 Take the Lead award from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, and the 2016 Education Excellence Award for her lifetime commitment to educational leadership by Lehigh County and Lehigh Valley My Brother’s Keeper. In addition, she received the 2020 Circle of Excellence award from Lehigh Valley Business.
Dr. Richardson’s personal interests include basketball, golf, matting and framing art, racquetball, and Tai chi.