About the President

Meet Wade Rousse, Ph.D., the 29th President of Louisiana State University

An accomplished economist and higher-education leader committed to accessible, excellent education—for all of Louisiana.

As President of LSU, Dr. Wade Rousse and his team have a fiduciary responsibility for approximately $3.8 billion worth of expenditures and oversight of all campuses, extension offices, and research centers located throughout Louisiana. During his first months on the job, he and his team worked through the details of a major system restructure that consolidated and grew LSU’s research base. The process returned the position of Chancellor to the A&M campus, which also oversees the entire research enterprise.

His goal of changing the way we educate Louisiana through excellence and accessibility is grounded in the knowledge that higher education can provide life-changing experiences to the students we serve. On excellence, our direction is clear. We are committed to elevating the research enterprise to become one of the top 50 research institutions in America while providing dynamic, market-driven curricula resulting in higher job placement rates and starting salaries for our graduates. Accessibility is achieved when we deliver clear degree pathways at our regional universities as well as understandable transfer processes so students can move through the LSU System with a purpose.

Prior to his role at LSU, Dr. Rousse served as the eighth president of McNeese State University where he and his team lead a remarkable institutional turnaround.

Together, they reversed a 14-year enrollment decline, increased first-time freshman enrollment by 13%, and achieved full occupancy in campus housing for the first time in more than two decades.

In addition to enrollment growth, Dr. Rousse and his team transformed the university’s approach to philanthropy, partnerships, and institutional advancement. He unified seven separate units into a strategic Office of Advancement. Under his leadership, the McNeese Foundation’s assets increased from $95 million to $130 million, while his team secured more than $40 million to advance the university’s long-term priorities.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Rousse held academic and leadership positions at Northern Arizona University, where he championed research initiatives that strengthened connections between scholarship and industry. He also served as a policy research specialist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, where he leveraged data and economic analysis to address real-world challenges in U.S. payment systems and financial market dynamics.

A first-generation college graduate and Louisiana native, Dr. Rousse earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois Chicago, an MBA from the University of New Orleans, and a B.S. in Business from Nicholls State University. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money and Sustainability. He is a member of the American Economic Association, Western Economic Association International, and the Financial Management Association International.