Finalists for dean of the Honors College at West Virginia University will visit the main campus beginning Monday (April 20).
Candidates will spend two days and one evening in Morgantown and will meet with administration, faculty, staff and students.
“The Honors dean oversees a live-learn experience, a rewarding academic program, and many other opportunities and resources that we offer to some of our most exceptional students,” said Katherine Karraker, associate provost for graduate academic affairs and chair of the selection committee. “These three candidates are passionate about all aspects of the undergraduate honors experience. We’re very excited to be bringing them to campus.”
The three candidates, and the dates of their visits, are:
Kenneth Blemings (April 20-21)
Blemings came to WVU in 1999 as an assistant professor of nutritional biochemistry and of genetics and developmental biology in the Division of Animal Veterinary Sciences. In 2010, he was promoted to full professor and named assistant director of academic programs for the division. He was a 2012 WVU Foundation Outstanding Teacher and a recipient of an APLU/USDA regional teaching award. He became leader of WVU’s intercollegiate undergraduate program in biochemistry in 2013. He has been interim dean of the Honors College at WVU since July 2014.
The open session for faculty and staff, which will include a presentation by Blemings and opportunities for questions, will be at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, in the Greenbrier Room of the Mountainlair.
Paul Harris (April 23-24)
Harris is associate director of the Auburn University Honors College and an associate professor of political science. When he joined the Honors College in 2008, he was tasked with establishing a national prestigious scholarship presence on campus. Since 2009, Auburn students have consistently been named scholarship winners and finalists for many of the nation’s top awards, including the Rhodes, Marshall, Gates-Cambridge, Mitchell, Truman, Goldwater and Fulbright scholarships. In addition to scholarship advising, Harris also plays an active role in honors’ programming and as faculty-in-residence in Auburn’s largest honors residential hall. Harris teaches a variety of honors and non-honors classes and serves on doctoral dissertation committees. In nearly 20 years of teaching and research, including a year as a Fulbright Scholar, he has established himself as a leading scholar on the Russian-speaking Jewish diaspora in Germany, Israel, and the U.S.
The open session for faculty and staff, which will include a presentation by Harris and opportunities for questions, will be at 10:30 a.m. on April 23, in the Rhododendron Room of the Mountainlair.
Kathy Cooke (April 28-29)
Cooke is founding director of the university honors program at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. She is an American historian and historian of science with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Cooke studies the history of biology and agriculture in American history. Her work has been funded and supported by the National Science Foundation, the California Institute of Technology, the American Philosophical Society, Yale, and Cornell, and she has published in numerous peer-reviewed academic journals. In the past few years her interests have expanded to include behavioral and cognitive psychology and neuroscience. In addition to Quinnipiac, she also is currently affiliated with the Clinical Affective and Neuroscience Laboratory at Brown University. In this capacity, Cooke measures the neurophysiological effects of different meditation practices in a NIH-funded clinical trial. She also has an article on this work forthcoming in the National Collegiate Honors Council journal Honors in Practice.
The open session for faculty and staff, which will include a presentation by Cooke and opportunities for questions, will be at 10:30 a.m. on April 28, in the Mountaineer Room of the Mountainlair.
Links to the full position description, as well as candidate curriculum vitae, itineraries and evaluation forms can be found at http://honors.wvu.edu/dean-search.
The new dean will report to Provost Joyce McConnell. The university anticipates a start date in summer 2015.
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CONTACT: Joyce McConnell, WVU provost
304.293.7119; joyce.mcconnell@mail.wvu.edu
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