{"id":37443,"date":"2015-06-24T11:10:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T18:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=37443"},"modified":"2015-07-06T14:42:04","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T21:42:04","slug":"vcu-dean-chosen-as-naus-provost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/vcu-dean-chosen-as-naus-provost\/","title":{"rendered":"VCU dean chosen as NAU’s provost"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Coleman<\/strong>, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been selected as the university\u2019s next provost, President Rita Cheng <\/strong>announced today.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim\u2019s broad background crosses multiple disciplines and his research focus makes him an excellent fit for provost. Perhaps more important, he shares our passion for transforming the lives of our students and meeting critical workforce needs for this state,\u201d Cheng said.<\/p>\n

Pending approval by the Arizona Board of Regents,\u00a0Coleman will serve as NAU\u2019s highest-ranking academic officer, working with the faculty to achieve the university\u2019s mission and goals,\u00a0including student success, educational access, excellence in education and integrity.<\/p>\n

Coleman will replace Laura Huenneke<\/strong>, who said she looks forward to doing research again as\u00a0a biological sciences faculty member. Huenneke has been provost since 2012 and previously served as NAU’s vice president for Research.<\/p>\n

Coleman has worked as dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University since 2011, where he also was\u00a0a biology professor. He served as vice provost and professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University, vice chancellor for Research and Biology professor at the University of Missouri and vice president for Research and Business Development at Desert Research Institute in Reno.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so thrilled to join President Cheng and the amazing faculty, staff and students at NAU to help facilitate the continued success of NAU’s academic programs,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cNAU is a university that truly matters to its students and community. I feel so honored that I will get to be a part of NAU’s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman earned an undergraduate forestry degree from the University of Maine and a master\u2019s and a Ph.D. from\u00a0Yale\u2019s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.<\/p>\n

As dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, Coleman worked with 400 full-time and 200 part-time faculty members.<\/p>\n

\u201cNAU seems to be an institution that is a perfect fit to the passion I have for the role of higher education in society,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cI see higher education as a transformational force that opens up opportunities\u00a0for students in ways that they might have never imagined, and engages with communities through research and outreach.”<\/p>\n

Coleman said he also was interested in becoming provost at NAU because of the faculty\u2019s commitment to engaging and mentoring students.\u00a0“I hope to help shape NAU’s academic mission and programs, and to facilitate the continued growth of the institution’s reputation as an exemplary university,” Coleman said.<\/p>\n

Coleman’s experience includes building community-engaged research, international partnerships and articulation agreements with community colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of skills and experiences that Jim brings to the table ensures NAU will maintain a high quality education environment while solidifying relationships with new and existing partners,” Cheng said. “He will be a great asset to the university and to this community.”<\/p>\n

Coleman will\u00a0start as provost in mid-August after he and his wife, Adele, move to Flagstaff.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Coleman, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been selected as the university\u2019s next provost, President Rita Cheng announced today. \u201cJim\u2019s broad background crosses multiple disciplines and his research focus makes him an excellent fit for provost. Perhaps more important, he shares our passion for transforming the lives…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":37451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,997],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","category-homepage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}