Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia Provost Jere Morehead has appointed a committee to begin a national search to fill the position of dean of UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs. Current dean Thomas Lauth intends to step down June 30. He has served as dean since the college’s creation in 2001 and came to UGA as a faculty member in the department of political science in 1981.
“Having just celebrated the school’s 10th anniversary, Dean Lauth leaves behind a legacy of recruiting truly outstanding faculty and building nationally regarded degree programs,” Morehead said. “He handled the complex issues that came with leading a new school exceptionally well, and we are indebted to him for his many years of dedicated service to the University of Georgia.”
Rebecca White, dean of UGA’s School of Law, will chair the search committee that includes faculty from each of the three departments within the school, as well as staff, students and a member of the school’s board of visitors.
Members of the search committee are Charles Bullock, the Richard B. Russell Professor of Political Science; Markus Crepaz, department head and professor of international affairs; Belle Doss, an undergraduate majoring in international affairs and a former Student Government Association chief of staff; Susan Haire, associate professor of political science; Loch Johnson, Regents Professor of International Affairs and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor; and William Keller, professor of international affairs and director of the Center for International Trade and Security.
Other members are John Maltese, department head and Albert Berry Saye Professor of Political Science; Keith Poole, the Philip H. Alston Jr. Distinguished Chair of Political Science; Hal Rainey, Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Policy and doctoral program director; Elizabeth Sassler, a doctoral student in public administration and policy; Nancy Thompson, director of administration in the dean’s office; Vicky Wilkins, associate professor of public administration and policy; and Brian Williams, associate professor of public administration and policy.
Cecil Phillips, chairman and CEO of Place Properties and a member of the school’s board of visitors, is representing external constituents on the committee.
The committee will be assisted by UGA Search Group in Human Resources.
The School of Public and International Affairs prepares undergraduate students for good citizenship and careers in public life and trains future generations of teachers and scholars in the fields of international affairs, political science, and public administration and policy. The school currently is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the nation’s fourth best public affairs graduate school. For more information about the school, see http://spia.uga.edu/.
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