ATHENS, Ga. – A University of Georgia search committee has recommended to UGA President Michael F. Adams five finalists for the position of senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the university.
Adams will choose one of the candidates to succeed Karen Holbrook, who left UGA last October to become president of Ohio State University. The candidates are:
*Arnett C. Mace, who currently serves as interim senior vice president for academic affairs and provost
*Linda Maxson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa
*Risa Palm, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
*Ellen Wartella, dean of the College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin
*Paul Zingg, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California Polytechnic State University.
Each candidate will visit UGA to meet with faculty, staff and students and to make a public presentation. Wartella will make the first visit Feb. 11; her schedule will be posted on the UGA Today Web page (www.uga.edu/news). Schedules for other visits will be announced soon.
The search committee, led by William Gray Potter, university librarian and associate provost, has been working since last October to identify candidates.
“We are indebted to Bill Potter and the search committee for their excellent work in bringing us five superb candidates for this crucial position,” Adams said. “The strong credentials and outstanding caliber of this group reflect the high academic stature the University of Georgia enjoys in the American educational community.”
Mace had been dean of UGA’s School of Forest Resources for 11 years when Adams tapped him last fall to serve as interim provost. Before coming to UGA in 1991, he was director of the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida. A specialist in natural resource management, he is a past president of the National Association of Professional Forestry Schools and Colleges and is a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters.
Maxson, a geneticist who specializes in ecology and evolutionary biology, has been at the University of Iowa since 1997. Previously she was associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee and head of the biology department at Penn State. She has been president of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Palm came to the University of North Carolina in 1997 after serving as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon, and associate vice chancellor for research and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Colorado. She holds graduate degrees in geography and is past president of the Association of American Geographers. The author or coauthor of 12 books or monographs, she has served on committees for the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation.
Wartella has been at the University of Texas since 1993. Previously she taught and conducted research on communications at the University of Illinois and Ohio State. She is coauthor or editor of nine books and many articles on the effects of mass media on children and other audiences, and has advised the producers of children’s television programs including “Sesame Street” and “The Magic School Bus.” A consultant to the Federal Communications Commission, she is a Fellow and past president of the International Communication Association.
Zingg is a historian who specializes in diplomatic history, the history of higher education and sports history. He came to California Polytechnic in 1993 as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and became provost and academic affairs vice president in 1995. He has also been dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Saint Mary’s College of California. Zingg has been on the executive committee of the Council of Fellows for the American Council on Education, and was on the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Core Curriculum.
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