The two highest profile searches ongoing at the University are making progress. The Presidential Search Committee announced last week that it has formed an advisory body designed to incorporate greater faculty input into its work, and two of three finalists for the Emory College deanship will visit campus this week (see below).

Board of Trustees Chair Ben Johnson, who chairs the Presidential Search Committee, said the group has appointed a 10-member Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) to augment the four faculty members who sit on the main search committee.

“The [FAC] will canvass the University faculty for suggestions or nominations of possible candidates for the presidency and will meet regularly with the Presidential Search Committee to communicate concerns, questions or suggestions about the search process,” Johnson said. “Furthermore, if constraints of confidentiality permit it, the advisory committee will meet in confidence with final candidates.

“In this respect,” Johnson continued, “the FAC can provide candidates with a broad perspective on interests of the faculty and can provide the search committee with a broader faculty perspective on the candidates.”

The members of the FAC include:

• Dwight Andrews, associate professor of music, Emory College.

• William Branch, Carter Smith Sr. Professor of Medicine and president of University Senate.

• Rich Freer, R.H. Howell Professor of Law.

• David Lynn, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Chemistry and Biology.

• Kathy Parker, associate professor of adult and elder health, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.

• Michael Rogers, associate professor of math, Oxford College.

• John Snarey, professor of human development and ethics, Candler School of Theology, and president-elect of University Senate.

• Claire Sterk, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Behavioral Science and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health.

• Elaine Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology, Emory College.

• Greg Waymire, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting, Goizueta Business School.


The FAC was formed through meetings and consultation with the Faculty Council, the Emory College Executive Committee and other faculty groups, Johnson said.

In addition to announcing the FAC, Johnson said the Presidential Search Committee has met in full four times, and individual members have held many meetings with faculty, staff and students at the University’s Oxford, Druid Hills and Grady Hospital campuses. Further, Johnson said the group has received “significant input” from former President Jimmy Carter, Emory President Emeritus James Laney and consultants Frank Rhodes (former president of Cornell University) and Joe Wyatt (former chancellor of Vanderbilt University).

Nearly 100 nominations have been submitted for the Emory presidency, Johnson said, a quarter of which are women. The committee is working with the search firm of Spencer Stuart to ensure a strong pool of candidates from under-represented minority groups, he added. Ads for the position have been placed in the Chronicle for Higher Education, Black Issues in Higher Education and Hispanic Outlook.

Johnson said the committee hopes to submit a recommendation to the Board of Trustees this summer.

College dean candidates coming to campus

Three candidates for the deanship of Emory College will hold open meetings with faculty during their official campus visits in April, the search committee announced last week.

The three finalists are William Brustein, professor of sociology and director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh; Bernadette Gray-Little, professor of psychology and executive associate provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Bobby Paul, interim dean of the college and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Brustein’s will be the first visit, April 7–8. Open faculty meetings will be held April 7 from 9:20–10:20 a.m. and April 8 from 10:15–11:15 a.m. Both meetings will be in the Jones Room of Woodruff Library.

Gray-Little will come to campus April 10–11, with open faculty meetings to be held April 10 from 9:15–10:15 a.m. in the Jones Room, and April 11 from 10:45–11:45 a.m. (location TBA).

Paul’s “campus visit”—the position’s only internal candidate is going through the same process as the other two candidates—will be held April 21–22. Times and locations for open meetings with Paul are not yet available.

The search committee encourages all faculty to make the most of these opportunities to personally listen and speak to all three deanship candidates.

“These meetings will provide the opportunity to hear about the candidates’ experiences in higher education, and to ask them about their views,” said Elaine Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and chair of the search committee. “Please take advantage of these opportunities to have input into this search process.”

—Michael Terrazas