Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies
NEWS

Miami names four candidates for provost position

Miami University named four candidates for the university provost and executive vice president of academic affairs position on Monday, April 22.

The four final candidates selected are Debra Schwinn, David Rosowsky, Guillermo Vasquez de Velasco and Jason Osborne. Three of these candidates - Rosowsky, Vasquez de Velasco and Osborne - were previously employed as provosts for different universities, while Schwinn served as associate vice president for medical affairs at another university.

The provost position oversees all teaching and academic research at Miami. The provost serves as the chair of university Senate to develop and execute policies to further Miami's academic goals.

Phyllis Callahan, Miami's outgoing provost and executive vice president of academic affairs, is expected to retire at the end of the coming semester after serving for four years as Miami's provost and 31 total years at the university.

In March, University President Gregory Crawford announced the formation of a search committee comprising 14 members from various departments to determine Miami's future provost. The committee is run by Elizabeth Mullenix, professor and dean of the College of Creative Arts (CCA). The committee worked with Storbeck Pimentel and Associates, an executive search firm located in Upper Providence, Pennsylvania, to further aid it in making its decision.

The firm's consultants met with members of Miami's community to "learn the characteristics and qualifications of an ideal person to be Miami's next academic leader," Ted Pickerill, secretary to the board of trustees and executive assistant to the provost, said. "A scoping document was created through this, which was shared with the search committee to gather their opinion before becoming the final document."

The search committee shared the scoping document to generate interest in the opportunity to become Miami's next provost. Among the interested candidates, the search committee identified four individuals to proceed to the next phase of the search.

Each candidate will visit Miami at the end of the semester to hold forums, where all Miami community members are welcome to attend.

Debra Schwinn served as dean of the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa before becoming associate vice president for Medical Affairs in 2016. According to her curriculum vitae, an overview of her qualifications and achievements, Schwinn believes that education is an integral aspect of life and the excellence of research in each educational department. Schwinn's research has shown aspirations to enhance academic growth and creates leaders in a fiscally sustainable way.

David Rosowksy served as provost and senior vice president at the University of Vermont (UVM) since 2013. Before his time at UVM, Rosowsky held numerous engineering professor positions at various universities.Throughout his curriculum vitae, Rosowsky has demonstrated his support for the implementation and strengthening of instruction and scholarship and diversity through his previous experiences as provost at UVM.

Guillermo Vasquez de Velasco last served as dean and professor of art, media and design at DePaul University. Before then, he has worked in management positions while teaching and conducting research. Throughout his many achievements on his curriculum vitae, Vasquez de Velasco shows passion for advocating education's key function for students through design thinking, multidisciplinary collaboration and exploration of technology and design.

Jason Osborne has served as the dean of the graduate school and associate provost at Clemson University, as well as a professor of applied statistics since 2015. According to his curriculum vitae, during his role at Clemson University, Osborne had the responsibility of developing and implementing student life and engagement initiatives, increasing the amount of inclusive and excellence initiatives, developing resources and infrastructure support initiatives and improving student and faculty engagement.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

Each candidate, as well as Mullenix, declined to comment when asked to be interviewed.

After each candidate visits Miami in the coming week, any community member is invited to provide feedback online until May 15.

Crawford will make the final hiring decision by the week of May 27, Pickerill said.

haubence@miamioh.edu

Read More

Trending