April 06, 2007

Four finalists in the running for SIUC chancellor

by Tom Woolf

CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard today (April 6) announced the names of the four finalists for chancellor of the Carbondale campus.

All four of the finalists will visit campus between April 22 and May 5, although specific itineraries remain to be finalized. Each finalist also will visit the School of Medicine in Springfield. Poshard's goal is to announce his choice for the post prior to the end of the spring semester, and present the recommendation to the SIU Board of Trustees at its June 14 meeting on the Carbondale campus.

The next chancellor will replace John M. Dunn, who became interim chancellor last year. He was not a candidate for the permanent appointment.

"I am especially grateful for the fine work of Susan Ford and the search advisory committee for all of their due diligence in narrowing the field of candidates," Poshard said.

Ford, chair of the anthropology department, headed the 16-member advisory panel.

Poshard also extended "special thanks" to the Hollins Group, Inc., an executive search firm in Chicago, which assisted in the search process. The firm did "a wonderful job," Poshard added.

During their visits, the finalists will meet with senior administrators, department chairs and directors, vice chancellors and their staffs, SIU Foundation and Alumni Association officials and student leadership. In addition, the finalists will participate in separate open public forums with students, faculty and Administrative/Professional-Civil Service staff, and attend a breakfast with community leaders.

In Springfield, each of the finalists will meet with the School of Medicine dean and his staff, and hold a meeting with faculty members.

Here is a look at the finalists, in alphabetical order:

• John H. Frederick, executive vice president and provost, University of Nevada, Reno. The university enrolls more than 16,000 students and offers 75 undergraduate majors and 60 master's and doctoral degree programs.

Frederick earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1980 from Princeton University, and his master's and doctoral degrees in chemistry from Harvard University in 1982 and 1985, respectively.

Frederick joined the University of Nevada as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1988. He became an associate professor in the department in 1993, and rose to full professor in 1998. He served as department chair from 1999 until his appointment as the university's executive vice president and provost in 2001.

He also served as director of the chemical physics doctoral program at the University of Nevada from 1990 to 2001.

From 1985 to 1988, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the chemistry department at the University of Washington.

• Yash P. Gupta, professor of operations management, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. The Los Angeles institution enrolls 16,500 undergraduates and 16,500 graduate students.

Gupta earned his bachelor of science degree in production engineering from Panjab University in India in 1973. He earned a master's degree in production management in 1974 from Brunel University of West London, England, and his doctorate in management sciences in 1976 from the University of Bradford, England.

Gupta joined the Marshall School of Business in 2004 as dean and Robert R. Dockson Dean's Chair in Business Administration, a post he held until 2006.

From 1999 to 2004, Gupta was dean of the University of Washington Business School. He also was a professor of operations management and held the Kirby L. Cramer Endowed Chair in Business Administration.

Gupta spent seven years – 1992-1999 – as dean and professor of management in the College of Business and Administration at the University of Colorado at Denver. Prior to that, from 1988 to 1992, he was at the University of Louisville School of Business where he was Frazier Family Professor and a senior research fellow in the Telecommnications Research Center.

• Sue Kiefer Hammersmith, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The campus has an enrollment of 7,300 undergraduate and graduate students.

Hammersmith earned all three of her degrees from Indiana University: a bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1970, master's degree in sociology in 1971 and her doctoral degree in sociology in 1976.

She has served in her current post since 2002. Prior to that, from 1987 to 2002, she was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich.

From 1985 to 1987, she was dean of the University College and an associate professor of sociology at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. Before moving to Ball State, she spent three years as assistant dean in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts.

• Fernando M. Trevino, dean of the School of Public Health, the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.

Trevino earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1971 from the University of Houston. He received a master's of public health degree in 1975 from the University of Texas School of Public Health, and a doctoral degree in preventive medicine and community health in 1979 from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Trevino has spent the past eight years as dean of the School of Public Health, where he also is a professor of health management and policy. Since 2002, he also has served as director of the Texas Institute for Hispanic Health in the School of Public Health, and since 1999, he has served as director of the school's Institute for Public Health Research.

For the past three years, Trevino also has served as acting chair of the School of Public Health's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

From 1996 to 2000, he served as professor and chairman of the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, part of the University of North Texas Health Science Center. From 1996 to 1999, he was the executive director of the university's graduate program in public health in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

For two years, from 1995 to 1997, Trevino was president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations in Geneva, Switzerland, and from 1993 to 1996, he was executive director of the American Public Health Association in Washington, D.C., and executive editor of "The Nation's Health."

Previous positions include dean of the School of Health Professions at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, and professor in Southwest Texas State's Department of Health Administration.