Sheldon Ekland-Olson (born 1944 in California)[1] is an American sociologist and Rapoport Centennial Professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin).
[2][1] He went on to serve as a special assistant to the chancellor of the University of Texas system from 1988 to 1991.
He was the associate dean of the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts from 1991 to 1993, whereupon he became the College's dean.
In 1998, he became the executive vice president and provost of UT-Austin, a position he held until 2006.
[3][4] He has also been the director of UT-Austin's Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation and the School of Human Ecology.