Leadership and Staff

Dr. YT Lee serves as the Dean of the College of Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies (CGIS) at NDSU which supports over 2,000 graduate students across more than 80 graduate programs in five academic colleges: College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources; College of Arts and Sciences; College of Business; College of Engineering; and College of Health and Human Sciences. He collaborates closely with a dedicated team of 11 professional staff members to foster academic excellence, graduate recruitment, interdisciplinary collaboration and professional growth for graduate students, programs and faculty, including professional development initiatives such as the Graduate Professional Skills Academy and the Center for Writers. Lee provides strategic leadership for graduate education across the university, as well as administration of several interdisciplinary graduate programs, including Cellular and Molecular Biology; Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER); Environmental and Conservation Sciences; Genomics, Phenomics and Bioinformatics; and Materials and Nanotechnology.

Career Background

Before his current role, Lee worked as a professor and Director of Applied Psychology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (an R1 university), where he served as the Dean of the Graduate School (2015-2019). From 2020 through June 2025, he continued to provide academic leadership at SIU, including serving three terms as Faculty Senate President (2021, 2022, and 2024), representing approximately 1,500 faculty members. Earlier in his career, Lee also held key administrative positions such as Department Chair at Minnesota State University, Mankato; Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Minot State University in North Dakota; and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Vice President at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Lee earned his BA in English and American Literature from Central South University in China and pursued graduate studies in psychology at Beijing Normal University before immigrating to the United States. He went on to complete his MA and Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology at Stony Brook University, followed by postdoctoral research and training at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1990s.

Professional Endeavors

Lee has authored and co-authored approximately 130 refereed journal articles and peer-reviewed book chapters, in addition to producing 13 scholarly books. He has secured and managed roughly $7 million in grants supporting research, education, training and other initiatives from a variety of public and private agencies. Beyond grants, Lee has also helped fundraise around $12 million in gifts and donations for educational institutions and cultural or nonprofit organizations, supporting scholarships, fellowships, endowments, capital campaigns and other initiatives.

​​In addition to supervising undergraduate and graduate student research, Lee has played a key role in developing and updating numerous academic programs at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. For the past 25 years, he has also served as a peer evaluator and site reviewer for doctoral program accreditation through the American Psychological Association and for institutional accreditation through the North Central Association — Higher Learning Commission. Since 2020, he has been a member of the Board of Directors for the 80-20 Education Foundation.

Phone: 701-231-5951
Email: yt.lee@ndsu.edu

Assistant to the Dean

Ben Austinson
(701) 231-5101
benjamin.austinson@ndsu.edu

Admission

Neely Benton
Director of Graduate Recruitment and Admissions
(701) 231-8476
neely.benton@ndsu.edu

Melissa Ostby
Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions
(701) 231- 7034
melissa.j.ostby@ndsu.edu

Bianca Milz
Graduate Student Services Specialist
(701) 231-4301
bianca.m.milz@ndsu.edu

Academic Support

Melissa Selders-Ortez
Academic Support Administrator
(701) 231-5945
melissa.seldersortez@ndsu.edu

• Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources
• Arts and Sciences
• Health and Human Sciences

Hali Emerson
Academic Support Specialist
(701) 231-8547
hali.emerson@ndsu.edu

• Arts and Sciences
• Business
• Engineering
• Interdisciplinary Studies

Matthew Warner, Ph.D.
Grad Hub and GPS Academy Coordinator
(701) 231- 6456
matthew.b.warner@ndsu.edu

Center for Writers

Stephen Disrud
Director
(701) 231-9382
stephen.disrud@ndsu.edu

Kristina Caton
Senior Consultant
(701) 231-5264
kristina.caton@ndsu.edu

Andrew Taylor
Dissertation and Thesis Coordinator
ndsu.disq.processor@ndsu.edu

Operations

Cassandra Pennings
Operations Coordinator
(701) 231-4303
cassandra.pennings@ndsu.edu

Rachel Meyer
Operations Assistant
(701)-231-7033
rachel.meyer.1@ndsu.edu

Business Center
Office of the Provost - Business Center