Ronald J. Chenail, Ph.D., has served as NSU's Provost, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Chief Academic Officer since 2020, after serving in the role on an interim basis. He also previously served as Associate Provost. Dr. Chenail holds an appointment as Professor of Family Therapy in the NSU Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine. 

Dr. Chenail has held numerous administrative positions at NSU, including Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness; Vice President for Research, Planning, and Governmental Affairs; Assistant to the President for Academic Affairs; Dean, School of Social and Systemic Studies; and Interim Dean of the Center for Psychological Studies, the Abraham S. Fischler College of Education, and the College of Computing and Engineering.

He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Qualitative Report, the world’s first multidisciplinary, online, open-access journal dedicated to qualitative research he founded in 1990. Previously, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy (JMFT), the flagship research journal of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, and Associate Editor with Family Business Review.

In addition, he is an editorial board member of Qualitative Research in Psychology; American Journal of Family Therapy, Contemporary Family Therapy, Qualitative Social Work; Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Health; and JMFT; as well as a founding editorial board member of Qualitative Inquiry.

His 140 publications, including nine books, have been cited over 8300 times. He has also given over 200 formal academic presentations at conferences and meetings in family therapy, qualitative research, conflict resolution, and higher education.

Dr. Chenail earned his B.A. in History from St. Bonaventure University, his M.Ed. in Educational Psychology-Counseling from the University of Houston, and his Ph.D. in Family Therapy from Nova University.