Athens, Ga. – A University of Georgia search committee has recommended four finalists to UGA President Michael F. Adams for the position of senior vice president for academic affairs and provost.
Each finalist will visit the university and will hold a University Council forum and open public session from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Chapel on the day of their campus visit. The public sessions, which will be open to faculty, staff, and students, will be followed by a brief media availability.
The finalists were announced today by search committee chair William Gray Potter, university librarian and associate provost. The 20-member committee began its work in March and is composed of faculty, staff, administrators, students and alumni. The committee was assisted by Shelly Weiss Storbeck, managing partner of executive search firm Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates.
Adams will choose a successor to Arnett C. Mace Jr., who is scheduled to retire on Jan. 1 after 18 years of service to UGA, with seven of those years as provost. (Mace will continue his leadership role in the MCG/UGA Medical Partnership under the title Special Assistant to the President.)
The finalists are:
- Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, founding dean of the University of South Carolina College of Arts and Sciences;
- Sallie Keller-McNulty, William and Stephanie Sick Dean of the Rice University George R. Brown School of Engineering;
- Jere W. Morehead, vice president for instruction at the University of Georgia; and
- Robert D. Newman, dean of humanities and associate vice president for interdisciplinary studies at the University of Utah.
“The quality of these finalists reflects the national stature of the University of Georgia and the critical nature of this position to the functioning of the university,” Adams said. “Bill Potter and the rest of the search committee have done an exceptional job in identifying such a distinguished group of candidates.”
Fitzpatrick has been at USC since 2005, where she is also Educational Foundation distinguished professor of psychology. Previously, she was deputy dean in the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Letters and Science. An internationally recognized authority on interpersonal communication, she is past president and a Fellow of the International Communication Association and has received its Career Achievement Award. Fitzpatrick’s campus visit is scheduled for August 24.
Keller-McNulty has been at Rice University since 2005. She was previously group leader in statistical sciences at Los Alamos National Laboratory and, prior to that, professor and director of graduate studies in the Kansas State University department of statistics. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Keller-McNulty’s campus visit is scheduled for September 1.
Morehead has been at UGA since 1986 and is the Meigs Professor of Legal Studies in the Terry College of Business. He was named vice president for instruction in 2007 after serving on an interim basis in 2006. He previously served as vice provost for academic affairs, associate provost and director of the Honors Program, and acting executive director of Legal Affairs. Morehead’s campus visit is scheduled for August 21.
Newman has been at the University of Utah since 2001, where he isalso professor of English. Newman has established several interdisciplinary programs, including international studies, environmental humanities, disability studies and the Asia Center. He has increased development funding to the College of Humanities by an average of 300 percent annually and increased external grant funding by an average of 1300 percent annually. Newman’s campus visit is scheduled for August 26.
“Our finalists come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds but have in common a dedication to academic excellence,” Potter said. “We look forward to the upcoming open sessions, which will provide an opportunity for the university community to get to know these candidates.”
As the chief academic officer at UGA, the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost oversees instruction, research, public service and outreach, and student affairs. The vice presidents of these four areas report to the provost, as do the deans of UGA’s 16 schools and colleges.
Links to finalists’ CVs are available at http://www.libs.uga.edu/provost/.
