As of May 1, 2026, Dr. McAteer serves as the acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer at NMSU. 

His senior academic leadership consists of more than a decade of progressive experience in higher education leadership, including his current permanent role at NMSU as Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs, and previously as Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, as Department Chair, and as the Director of major research initiatives. He has a proven record of leading system-wide change and innovation, advancing student success, promoting faculty excellence, leading academic interdisciplinary initiatives, and growing research enterprise capacity.

He has a deep and effective commitment to shared governance, data-informed decision-making, inclusion, servingness, the land-grant and public-good missions. He has a demonstrated understanding of the distinctive needs of an MSI university, including rural, military, and first-generation servingness, Tribal and borderlands communities, affordability pressures, and the integration of public service and cooperative education within the University mission. 

His national executive leadership includes work with the National Academics, and with APLU. He is a nationally impactful researcher, with NSF CAREER and NASA career awards, and leadership roles with the International Astronomical Union, and as a Board member for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), who operate all national-funded space- and ground- based facilities, including the Hubble Space Telescope, and James Webb Space Telescope. He has also served as an author for the National Academies, and as a governor-appointed commissioner for museums.