Virginia Tech has announced the search committee for a new dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Current dean Sue Ott Rowlands recently announced she is leaving Virginia Tech to become vice president for academic affairs and provost at Northern Kentucky University. Joan Hirt, professor of educational leadership and policy studies in the School of Education, will serve as interim dean beginning in January 2014.

The College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences includes programs in the arts, humanities, social and human sciences, and education. The college seeks to illuminate human experience and expression by creating works of lasting scholarly, cultural, and aesthetic value; empower individuals to engage critically with the complexities of a diverse, global society; and foster the inquiry, innovation, and growth that produce individual and social transformation.

Senior Vice President and Provost Mark McNamee will chair the search committee. Members of the search committee are:

  • Mark Barrow, professor and chair, Department of History;
  • Nancy Bodenhorn, associate professor and associate director, Office of Academic Programs in the School of Education;
  • Tracy Cowden, associate professor and program chair, School of Performing Arts: Music;
  • Jack Davis, dean, College of Architecture and Urban Studies;
  • Karen DePauw, vice president and dean for graduate education;
  • Rosemary Goss, Residential Property Management Advisory Board Professor, Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management;
  • Kwame Harrison, associate professor, Department of Sociology;
  • Donna Mallet, scholarship and enrollment officer, Army ROTC;
  • Eric McCollum, professor, Department of Human Development, Northern Virginia Center;
  • Michael Moehler, assistant professor, Department of Philosophy;
  • Mary Denson Moore, senior instructor, Department of English;
  • Patty Raun, professor and director, School of Performing Arts;
  • John Tedesco, professor, Department of Communication;
  • Edward Weisband, Edward S. Diggs Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences, Department of Political Science;
  • Sally Wieringa, graduate coordinator, Department of English; and
  • Anisa Zvonkovic, professor and head, Department of Human Development.

The search committee welcomes nominations for the position. Virginia Tech has engaged Isaacson, Miller to assist with this search. For confidential inquiries, or to nominate an individual for this position, email Phillip Jaeger, vice president at Isaacson, Miller, or call 202-216-2276. 

Nominations may also be emailed to Mark McNamee or sent campus mail to 210 Burruss Hall (0132).

The position description and application process will be announced in December 2013 and will be available on the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost website.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

Share this story