![Todd Diacon will serve as Kent State University's next president. [Kent State University]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0998d46/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1333+0+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F4%2F29%2FDiacon.jpg)
The trustees of Kent State University have picked a new president. Todd Diacon will succeed Beverly Warren in leading the public university, according to a news release from the university.
Kent State’s board found the new president from within the university’s own ranks. Diacon is currently KSU’s provost and executive vice president, where he oversees the school’s academic affairs, faculty, staff and administration.
He came to Kent in 2012 after working as deputy chancellor the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He worked for about two decades at the University of Tennessee.
Diacon received his doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He specializes in Brazilian history, and set up a partnership between Kent State and the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, a private school in Brazil, according to the news release.
Warren announced last year that she would step down in July of 2019. She’s held the position since 2014.
