Choice made in CUPA dean search

The search committee to select a new dean for the College of Urban and Public Affairs has made its choice, but the announcement of the person’s identity will be made some time within the next week.

“There are offers to be made,” said Provost Mary Kay Tetrault.

A staff person familiar with the workings of the search committee said this kind of short delay is customary.

Tetrault said she, as the head of academic affairs for the university, made the decision with the concurrence of PSU President Daniel Bernstine.

The search committee was headed by Marvin Kaiser, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

There were four finalist candidates. The four visited the campus individually between March 3 and March 14 for personal interviews.

The four finalists were John C. Pierce of Portland, David Fleming of Atlanta, Ga., Bryan Johnston of Salem, Ore., and Michael Hibbard of Eugene, Ore.

Pierce is a research professor at Washington State University in Vancouver, Wash. He was formerly vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and professor of political science at that university from 1997-2001, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Washington State University from 1986-1997, and chair of political science at WSU from 1976 to 1984.

Fleming has been deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2000 and was acting director for five months in 2002. He served as Oregon State epidemiologist from 1992 to 2000 and has continued as a professor of public health and preventive medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University since 1986.

Johnston served on the faculty of Willamette University in various posts from 1984 to 1991, and 1997 to January of this year. He was interim president of Willamette University from July 1997 to August 1998 and served two terms as a representative in the state Legislature, in 1994 and 1996.

Hibbard is head of the department of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon. He has been at the university since 1980, assuming a variety of responsibilities.