In an academic year that has seen the hiring of a new Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of the Farmer School of Business, Miami is preparing to make another hire as candidates for dean of the College of Creative Arts attend open forums throughout the next seven days.
Of the three candidates, Miami currently employs two, one of which is the current college's interim dean. The other, Leslie Bellavance, is a professor and dean of the School of Art at Alfred University in Alfred, NY.
Bellavance's forum is 4-5 p.m. Wednesday, March 12 in Art 100. She has worked in several university art departments since 1981, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and James Madison University.
Throughout her career, Bellavance has held administrative and teaching positions, along with working as an artist and, in her résumé, said if she is hired she will bring to the college her imagination and leadership.
The second open forum, Peg Faimon's, Miami's Department of Art chair, is scheduled for 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Thursday March 13 in room 109 of the Center for Performing Arts. Faimon has more than 20 years of experience at Miami, working as a graphic design professor, the co-director of the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies (AIMS) and, most recently, chair of the Department of Art.
Aside from her experience in the classroom, Faimon is the founder of her own graphic design firm Peg Faimon Design in addition to her experience as a founding director of Miami Design Collaborative.
Elizabeth Mullenix, Interim Dean of the College of Creative Arts and the third candidate for the permanent position, will have her forum from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday, March 17 in Art 100. Mullenix, who, in her application, said she did not originally intend to apply for the job, has several years of administrative experience in Oxford. She arrived on campus in 2006 as the Chair of the Department of Theatre and remained in that role until she was appointed interim dean last summer. Mullenix, a Cincinnati native, also teaches theater. Prior to her time at Miami, she taught University of Illinois and served as associate dean of the College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University.
The dean of the College of Creative Arts will oversee 158 full-time faculty and 100 undergraduate and graduate students in an academic division that has 10 available undergraduate degrees and six graduate degrees.
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