An email from the Provost updated faculty and staff on changes in recent employment and vacant positions including ongoing dean searches, the University Registrar position and personnel changes in the Provost office.

There has been an ongoing search for the dean positions in the Gordon Ford College of Business and the College of Health and Human Services. Currently, Catherine Carey serves as the interim dean of GFCB and Dennis George serves as the interim dean of CHHS.

Carey also serves as an economics professor within GFCB. George was the dean of the University College before is elimination on June 30, 2018.

Candidates for the two ongoing 
dean searches will be on campus in the upcoming weeks.

Four people joined the Office of the Provost in varying capacities recently. Jim Berger, a professor of educational administration, leadership and research, is now the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges liaison for WKU. The programs within WKU have SACSCOC accreditation.

Rheanna Plemons will move from her position as interim registrar to special assistant to the provost, with that position beginning on July 1. Jennifer Hammonds, former registrar of Shawnee State University, will be university registrar effective June 1.

Potter College of Arts
and Letters
will have a
new associate dean effective July 1. The new associate dean will be Merrall Price, who formerly served as the associate dean for the University College.

Interim Director for the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning Marko Dumančić will officially take the position in full effective April 1.

The email also mentioned that the search will begin soon to fill the vacant associate vice president academic enrichment and effectiveness position. Doug McElroy formerly filled this position.

The Staff Special and Events Coordinator, Candice Tope-Phillips, is no longer with WKU effective March 8. Tope-Phillips left to go to the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts in Frankfort. There are a handful of people listed in the email that are working to fill her positions in the interim.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said the vacant associate vice president position mentioned by the Provost was the vice president of philanthropy and alumni engagement, currently held by John Paul Blair. However the email was referencing the associate vice president for academic enrichment and effectiveness in the Provost office. Doug McElroy formerly filled this position until Feb. 1 when he began to transition to a different position. The story has been updated and the Herald regrets this error. 

News reporter Lily Burris can be reached at 270-745-6011 and [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at  @lily_burris.