Search Committee Offers Four Candidates for UMaine Presidency
Contact: John Diamond 973-3224, Rita Sullivan 973-3245
BANGOR — Four candidates for the presidency of the University of Maine have been invited to Orono for a series of meetings with faculty, staff, students, and others.
University System Chancellor Joseph W. Westphal announced the names Tuesday morning.
A 12-member search committee, appointed by Board of Trustees Chair Charles L. Johnson, III last fall, selected the four following a nationwide search process.
Presented in alphabetical order, the four candidates are:
* P. Geoffrey Feiss. Dr. Feiss currently serves as the provost of the College of William and Mary, located in Williamsburg, VA.~ Dr. Feiss is a geologist who received his A.B. in Geology from Princeton University (1965) and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geology (1967 and 1970, respectively) from Harvard University.~ Prior to his current position, Feiss held other administrative and faculty positions at the College of William and Mary and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also served on the faculty of Albion College early in his academic career. Dr. Feiss’s professional career includes a position as exploration geologist for Copper Range Co. and AMAX, Inc. He is a First Lieutenant (retired reserve) in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
* Brian L. Foster. Dr. Foster is currently the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M. Dr. Foster is an anthropologist who received a B.A. in History, with a minor in Anthropology, from Northern Illinois University (1967). He subsequently attended the University of Michigan, from which he received an A.M. and Ph.D. (1968 and 1972, respectively) in Anthropology. Prior to his current position, Dr. Foster held administrative and faculty positions at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Arizona State University, and the State University of New York-Binghamton. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Foster owned and operated an insurance agency in Dixon, Ill. for five years.
* Robert A. Kennedy. Dr. Kennedy is currently the interim president of the University of Maine, Orono, ME. Dr. Kennedy is a plant biochemist who received his B.S. in Plant Science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (1968). Following military service, Dr. Kennedy received a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of California, Berkeley (1974). Prior to his current position, Dr. Kennedy held other administrative and faculty positions at UMaine, Texas A&M University, the University of Maryland, Ohio State University, and Washington State University. Early in his career, Dr. Kennedy was on the faculty at the University of Iowa. He later worked as a program director for the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C.
* Mary Ann Rankin. Dr. Rankin is currently dean of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas-Austin. Dr. Rankin is a biologist who attended Adams State College in Colorado and received her B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Louisiana State University in New Orleans (1966). She subsequently received a Ph.D. in Physiology and Behavior from the University of Iowa (1972). Prior to her current position, Dr. Rankin held several other administrative and faculty positions at UT-Austin, including chairperson of the Division of Biological Sciences. Dr. Rankin also worked six summers at Marine Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole, MA.
The presidential search process began in November. Recently the committee held individual off-site interviews with eight candidates for the position. The search committee narrowed its list to four following a meeting in Bangor last week.
The schedule of visits is being assembled and will be announced shortly. Under the process established for the presidential search, Westphal will select one person from among the four candidates and will recommend his or her appointment to the University of Maine System Board of Trustees for its approval.
More information about the search process and the president’s responsibilities and desired credentials and qualities may be found at http://www.umaine.edu/eo/administrative/president.html.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Photos of the four UMaine presidential candidates are available at: www.maine.edu/umainefinalists