Greenwood / Asher & Associates Seeks Provost for Wright State University
February 27, 2018 – The hunt for university leadership has been heating up, especially with searches for provosts. Among the latest, Wright State University in Fairborn, OH, has turned to Greenwood / Asher & Associates to lead its search for a new provost. Thomas Sudkamp is stepping down from his role at the end of June, and the school hopes to find his replacement by that time. President Jan Greenwood and vice president Betty Turner Asher are leading the assignment.
The search committee is being chaired by Travis Doom, faculty senate president, and Stephanie Green, senior vice president at Fifth Third Bank and a member of the Wright State board of trustees. Consultants from Greenwood / Asher & Associates and the search committee recently met to discuss the attributes and characteristics they want in the next provost.
Finalists for the position are expected to be invited to campus for interviews before the end of the spring semester. The campus community will have opportunities to give their feedback on these candidates.
“This is a critical time for our university to search for the very best chief academic officer,” said Cheryl B. Schrader, president of university. “Our search committee members’ dedication and assistance to finding and securing the best candidate is crucial.”
Candidates for the role are likely to see this as an exciting time to join the university, said Ms. Schrader. “For instance, we are at the beginning stages of our strategic planning process that will guide Wright State University by creating a vision and focus that directly aligns resources with our values, our strengths, and the strategy we build around them,” she said. “We also have a college realignment activity progressing that demonstrates our desire for change to meet the demands of a new workforce.”
Recruiting University Leadership
Greenwood / Asher & Associates is a women-owned executive search firm with a diverse consulting team and extensive experience in executive search, consulting and training for education markets including elementary, secondary, higher education, university systems, campuses, and non-profit organizations including associations, service and cultural institutions.
Dr. Greenwood is a pioneer in U.S. higher education, having been the first woman president of a public four-year and graduate institution in Virginia. She is a licensed psychologist with experience as a psychometrist and with post-doctoral training in group methods. She brings these skill sets to her work with clients, candidates and search committees.
Ms. Asher brings to executive search, consulting and training a unique background of leadership service at all levels of higher education institutions and systems, in academics and student affairs and in public and private institutions.
Provost Recruiting
Other schools have turned to executive search firms to find new provosts. Here’s a look at a few from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
Higher Education Leadership Search has been selected by Northeastern State University in Oklahoma to help find a new provost and vice president of academic affairs. Consultants Bill Meehan and Alan Medders are leading the assignment. Candidates must hold a doctorate or other appropriate terminal degree and will have a distinguished record of scholarship …
Academic Search has placed Michael J. Lane as the new provost and VP of academic affairs for Savannah State University. Senior consultants Mac A. Stewart and Maya Kirkhope led the assignment. He comes to the school from Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, where he served as dean and professor over the college of arts and sciences since 2012.
Heidrick & Struggles’ higher education specialty team recruited Dwight McBride as the provost and chief academic officer of Emory University. Mr. McBride was previously the dean of the graduate school and associate provost for graduate education at Northwestern University. The provost search advisory committee was co-chaired by professors Carol Anderson and Carlos del Rio.
Witt/Kieffer recruited Andreas Cangellaris as the provost of the University of Illinois’ Urbana campus. The recruiting firm, one of nine under contract by the Illinois Public Higher Education Cooperative to perform administrative, academic and medical searches, was paid $121,600 plus expenses to conduct the assignment.
Wheless Partners has placed Michael Galvean as provost and SVP of academic affairs at Texas Tech University. Mike (JR) Wheless led the assignment. Previously, Dr. Galvean served as dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources. Past provost Lawrence Schovanec left the post to become the 17th president of the university.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Will Schatz, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
