(UPDATE: All fora held in the Mountainlair will now be held in the Blue Ballroomnot the Gold Ballroom as orginally planned.)


Three candidates for West Virginia University provost have been invited to campus for interviews and forums beginning Thursday (Aug. 27).


Dr. Michele G. Wheatly, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; Dr. James S. Coleman, vice provost for research at Rice University in Houston, Texas; and Dr. Jeffrey D. Armstrong, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University; will visit campus over the next two weeks.


Dean Wheatly, Vice Provost Coleman and Dean Armstrong excel as academic leaders. Each has been highly successful at supporting research initiatives and opportunities, recruiting and retaining exceptional faculty, and improving academic programs,said WVU President James P. Clements.The many hours members of the Provost Search Committee dedicated to screening, interviewing and recruiting candidates have resulted in three very skilled academic administrators as finalists for this position. It is my pleasure to invite these candidates to campus, and I strongly encourage faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members to meet and speak with each of them.


Dr. Wheatly, who will visit campus Thursday, Aug. 27, and Friday, Aug. 28, has been dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and professor of biological sciences (since 1994) at Wright State University since 2002. Wright State is a comprehensive public doctoral research institution (high research activity).


Wheatlys research has focused on comparative physiology, most recently using a crustacean model to understand the logic of epithelial calcium transport. She has been the principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on approximately $21.5 million in grants with 24 years of continuous NSF funding as PI. She has written or contributed to over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters. She has taught courses in biology, marine animal physiology, women in science and human computer interaction, among others.


Under Wheatlys leadership, annual research expenditures for the college more than doubled from nearly $7 million to $15 million, graduate enrollment has increased by 68 percent and undergraduate enrollment has increased by 10 percent. She implemented a comprehensive development plan that has resulted in a 15-fold increase in gifts annually.


Wheatly provides leadership to a wide variety of regional initiatives impacting economic development programs such as the Base Realignment and Closure Commission Academic Task Force, pre-kindergarten-through-university innovations including the Dayton Regional STEM School, and an NSF ADVANCE grant for increasing the participation and advancement ofwomen in science and engineering careers.


Wheatly has also led a variety of diversity and social justice initiatives. Creating Laboratory Access for Science Students (CLASS), which has enhanced accessibility in laboratories, was recognized by Congress in 2004 as a model program. She recently successfully launched an NSF -funded Regional Alliance in Disability in partnership with The Ohio State University. As part of her effort to support students, she implemented a series of curricular reforms in STEM , some in partnership with a local community college. Within her college, she established aDeans Circleof undergraduate representatives and revamped the advising in the two largest undergraduate majorsbiology and psychology.


Prior her to appointment as dean, Wheatly served as chair of Biological Sciences at Wright State from 1994 to 2002. From 1984 to 1994 she was a professor of zoologyat the University of Florida. She earned a bachelors degree in biological sciences and doctorate of comparative physiology at Birmingham University, held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary in Canada and participated in executive training at Harvard.


Dr. Coleman, who will visit campus on Monday, Aug. 31, and Tuesday, Sept. 1, has been vice provost for research and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Rice University since 2007. Rice University is a comprehensive private doctoral research institution (very high research activity), which was recently ranked 17th in the US News and World Report ranking of national universities.


Colemans research has focused on the ecological effects of environmental change. He has been the principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on approximately $40 million of grants and cooperative agreements. He has written or contributed to over 70 scientific journal articles, including co-authoring a cover article in the journal Nature last year. He has taught courses in biology, plant physiology, population biology and environmental sciences, among others.


Overall grant activity grew more than 25 percent during Colemans time at University of Missouri-Columbia, and new grants increased approximately 20 percent during his first two years at Rice. He helped to secure and played a leadership role in implementing a $3 million gift to foster biomedical research collaboration between Rice, Texas Childrens Hospital, and the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, and an $8.5 million gift for the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment Disorders at MU.


Coleman has served in a number of public roles, including as commissioner of the University of Rhode Island Commission for Research and Innovation, a member of the Board of Visitors for the National Science Foundation EPSCoR program,and chair of the Energy Collaborative Technology Development Subcommittee of the Greater Houston Partnership.


Colemans high level of engagement contributed to MU winning an NSF ADVANCE grant, which promotes the development of female faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, and he has contributed to several federal awards to increase student diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. He worked to increase the number of undergraduate students engaged in research by allocating funds to create a campus-wide Office of Undergraduate Research at MU.


Prior to serving as vice provost, Coleman was vice chancellor for research and professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He obtained a doctorate and masters degree in forestry and environmental studies with a focus in plant physiological ecology from Yale University and a bachelors degree in forestry from the University of Maine.


Dr. Armstrong, who will visit campus on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and Thursday, Sept. 3, has been dean at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and professor of Animal Science at Michigan State University since 2001. Michigan State is a comprehensive doctoral land-grant university (very high research activity).


Armstrongs laboratory-based research focused on nutrition and reproduction in bovine and porcine females and more recent work has been in the area of social responsibility in the food chain. He has been the principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on over $4 million of grants and cooperative agreements and has made substantive contributions to institutional grants and agreements worth well over $50 million. He has written or contributed to over 45 scientific journal articles. Armstrong has taught courses in agricultural and life sciences, mammalian endocrinology, and reproductive lactation and behavior, among others.


Under Armstrongs leadership, overall grant activity increased by 100 percent, with international grant activity increased by over 200 percent; and more than $178 million ($58 million in endowments) was raised as part of MSU s capital campaign. He was instrumental in establishing joint turf-grass degree programs with four universities in China.


Armstrong has served on the USDA Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics Advisory Committee, and was recently appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Seventh District Advisory Council. As chair of the Board of Agriculture Assembly Farm Bill Committee and co-chair of CREATE -21, he contributed to the change to competitive grant funding in the most recent congressional farm bill.


Armstrong established the position of associate dean and director for Diversity and Pluralism. Through the efforts of Armstrong and other members of the administrative team undergraduate student minority population increased from 8.3 to 11.1 percent and minority faculty increased from 9.9 to 13.2 percent over five years. As a faculty member, he was engaged in the classroom, advising students, revising general university requirements and starting a Freshman College, and he has continued to teach as a guest lecturer and to mentor students while an administrator.


Prior to his appointment as dean, Armstrong was head of the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University from 1997 to 2001. He earned masters and doctorate degrees in physiology and endocrinology from North Carolina State University and a bachelors degree in biology from Murray State University.


Faculty, students, staff and community are invited to participate in Academic and University Community Fora and Research and Scholarship Fora as follows:

* WHEATLY *


Thursday (Aug. 27):


-Research and Outreach Forum, National Research Center for Coal and Energy (NRCCE), Room A&B, 1:30-2:30 p.m.


Friday (Aug. 28):


-Academic and University Community Forum, Mountainlair,Blue Ballroom, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Webcast available (with restricted access to WVU employees/students with WVU masterID and password) at http://provostsearch.wvu.edu .

* COLEMAN *


Monday (Aug. 31):


-Academic and University Community Forum, Mountainlair,Blue Ballroom, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Webcast available (with restricted access to WVU employees/students with WVU masterID and password) at http://provostsearch.wvu.edu .


Tuesday (Sept. 1):


-Research and Outreach Forum, NRCCE , Room A&B, 9:30-10:30 a.m.

* ARMSTRONG *


Wednesday (Sept. 2):


-Research and Outreach Forum, Mountainlair, Blue Ballroom, 1:30-2:30 p.m.


Thursday (Sept. 3):


-Academic and University Community Forum, Mountainlair,Blue Ballroom, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Webcast available (with restricted access to WVU employees/students with WVU masterID and password) at http://provostsearch.wvu.edu .


Each candidate will also meet with President Clements, Interim Provost E. Jane Martin and the Universitys associate provosts, campus leaders, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, senior officers, deans and the search committee.


Curriculum vitae and additional information will be posted online at: http://provostsearch.wvu.edu/ . Academic and University Community Fora will be webcast (with restricted access to WVU employees/students with WVU masterID and password) at http://provostsearch.wvu.edu . Questions from individuals unable to attend the fora on campus may be submitted via email to ” provostsearch@mail.wvu.edu rel=nofollow> provostsearch@mail.wvu.edu . These questions will be asked as time permits.

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