Dr. Paul D. Coreil was appointed Chancellor of LSU of Alexandria effective October 2019. He also served as LSUA Interim Chancellor from February 2013-February 2014 and from June-Oct. 2019. His focus at LSUA has been on campus facility modernization and in the development and implementation of a major LSUA Marketing Plan devoted to increasing university visibility, student enrollment, student retention, graduation rates, and student career success upon graduation. Prior to his LSUA appointment in 2013, he served in the position of Vice Chancellor of the LSU Agricultural Center and Director of the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service (LCES), a position he held from September 2001-February 2013 when he officially retired and was named LCES Director, Vice Chancellor, and Professor Emeritus by the LSU Board of Supervisors soon thereafter. He has also served in several previous positions within the LSU Agricultural Center, beginning his Extension career as a Sea Grant Assistant Area Agent in Fisheries and Wildlife for Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes in 1978. He also served as parish chair of the Cameron Parish Extension Service office from 1987-1992.
Dr. Coreil was appointed as Wetlands and Coastal Resources Specialist for LCES / Sea Grant in 1992 and served in that capacity until 1998. In 1998, he assumed the position of Wetlands Administrator for Burlington Resources (formally Louisiana Land and Exploration Company - L, L & E – the largest private coastal landowner in Louisiana), managing over 600,000 acres of fee title coastal wetlands owned by the company. In 1999, he returned to the LSU AgCenter as Assistant Director for Environmental Programs, a position he held until being named Extension Director in 2001. He served as chair the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors in 2006; he also served as chair of the eXtension National Governing Committee – a committee that helped develop a national web-based information system covering a variety of topic areas important to a diversity of public interests. Dr. Coreil also served as the chair of the national Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) in 2009.
Dr. Coreil received his Bachelors of Science in Zoology from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Both his Master’s Degree (in Wildlife Management) and PhD (in Extension Education) are from Louisiana State University. His Master’s research at Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge in Cameron and Vermilion Parishes included a radio telemetry study of habitat preferences and activities of nutria. His PhD research was focused on landowners’ perceptions related to wetland regulatory policy in coastal Louisiana. The recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Coreil received the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s Coastal Stewardship (professional category) Award, the LSU AgCenter Chancellor's Diversity Leadership Award, and the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors (ASRED) Excellence in Leadership Award. He also served on the Louisiana 4-H Foundation Board of Trustees from 2015-2019, and is a past member of the board for the Louisiana Wildlife Federation. He was also inducted into the Louisiana 4-H Hall of Fame in 2015, the National 4-H Hall of Fame in 2017 and the Louisiana Agricultural Hall of Distinction in 2022.
Dr. Coreil was born and raised in Ville Platte, LA and has been married to Arlene Pitre Coreil (also from VP) for 50 years. They are the parents of 3 children: Abram Luke, who is deceased, and two living adult children – Dr. Ashley Coreil Record, a dermatologist in Zachary, LA and Adam Paul Coreil, a cyber-security computer specialist and consultant in Dallas, Texas. Paul is an avid hunter and fisherman, spending as much time as he can at his lake house on Lake St. John in Concordia Parish. He enjoys volunteering for his church, supporting conservation and youth education related programs statewide. He has also been blessed with three wonderful grandchildren: Lillian 15, Abram 12, and Lucien 8.
