Amber Reinhart is Vice Provost of the Graduate School and Academic Affairs and Professor of Communication and Media. She provides university-wide leadership for graduate education and academic programs and chairs the Graduate Council. She serves as UMSL's Accreditation Liaison Officer to the Higher Learning Commission and partners with the provost on state higher education matters, workforce development, and strategic enrollment planning.
Dr. Reinhart redesigned UMSL's five-year academic program review process, reinstated annual college and department reviews, and built the internal approval process for new degree programs. She led the university through its HLC mid-cycle review and is leading its Quality Initiative and preparation for reaffirmation of accreditation in 2028. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served on the senior academic leadership team guiding UMSL's transition to remote instruction.
As Associate Provost for Academic Affairs from 2021 to 2025, she oversaw Institutional Research and concurrently served as Interim Senior Director of the Graduate School and Interim Managing Director of Design Services for the UM System's Missouri Online. A member of the UMSL faculty since 2006, she previously served as Associate Chair and Graduate Program Director in Communication and Media.
Her research on persuasion and health messaging, focused on vaccine hesitancy, organ donation, and health disparities, has appeared in Vaccine, Communication Monographs, Health Communication, and Patient Education and Counseling. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication from the University at Buffalo.
Specific duties that Dr. Reinhart fulfills include:
Oversees graduate academic policy, standing, and appeals, working with graduate program directors to align practice across all graduate programs
Leads academic program review and the Provost's Office review of program proposals and curriculum, including new programs, program changes, and program activities
Manages state and federal academic compliance
Directs academic scheduling policy and instructional modality
Coordinates online education
Supervises the Graduate School staff, student success data analyst, and the faculty fellow for academic program review
Vice Provost of the Graduate School and Academic Affairs, Professor of Communication and Media
