Dean L. Bresciani is an American academic who served as the 14th president of North Dakota State University in Fargo[1][2] from 2010 to 2022.

[6] Bresicani has also served in administrative and faculty positions at public universities in Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and California.

Bresciani was the first president from any North Dakota college or university to join a major leadership group in the NCAA.

[27][28] Later, lawyers from both NDSU and the North Dakota University System (NDUS) said the emails had been recovered and were likely deleted due to an auto-purge function.

[30][31] The same year, Bresciani was critiqued by North Dakota lawmakers and the NDUS chancellor Mark Hagerott for purchasing a business-class ticket for a week-long trip to India.

[32][33] In 2021, Bresciani was censured by the NDSU faculty senate for appointing then-interim provost (education) Margaret Fitzgerald to the permanent role, despite a national search and interview process.

This is largely credited to a single critical performance review of Bresciani which external observers broadly recognized as unfounded.