Matthew Raleigh Lee is an American sociologist and criminologist at Louisiana State University and university administrator. He is currently the Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Support Services at LSU.
Education and career
Lee received his A.A. degree from Dutchess Community College in 1992, his B.A. from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1994, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Louisiana State University in 1996 and 1999, respectively. He attended the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education at Harvard University in 2012. His Ph.D. supervisor was Edward Shihadeh. In 1999, he joined the faculty of Mississippi State University as an assistant professor of sociology, and was promoted to associate professor there in 2003. In 2004, he left Mississippi State to become an associate professor of sociology at LSU with tenure. In 2008, he became a full professor at LSU. He has served as a university administrator since 2010. Lee’s research and teaching interests are in the broad areas of criminal violence and public health. He has written or co-authored more than 60 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and has received NSF CAREER and SGER grants, Board of Regents Enhancement funds, and research support from other sources. He is an internationally recognized expert on interpersonal violence and community patterns of violent crime, crime in rural communities, the social impacts of disasters, and is most well-known for his scholarly work on civic community theory. He has been the lead LSU investigator on the $8 million Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities, which is a multi-institutional research effort funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. In the past he was a scientific advisor and provided public relations support for the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination, or BRAVE, program. He regularly served as a media consultant on issues related to crime and violence and the social impacts of disasters for nearly a decade. He has been heavily involved in mentoring outstanding graduate and undergraduate students, including students who have become Ronald McNair and Perkins Fellows, and a Truman Scholar and Ford Fellow. Several of his former students are now tenured faculty members and well-respected scholars in the fields of sociology and criminology. Lee spent 5 years as the Associate Vice President for Research at LSU, where his responsibilities included funding program management, faculty development, research policy development, research communications, and oversight for all federal research compliance efforts. His duties also included overseeing a variety of research centers and institutes. Since July 2015 he has served as the Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Support Services at LSU. In this capacity he provides oversight for and facilitates the initiation, continuation, and discontinuation of all academic programs and policies on the LSU A&M campus and the other campuses of the LSU System, and oversees the administration of a large portfolio of academic support programs and services.
