Maryland Dean Named UMaine Provost
Contact: Joe Carr at (207 )581-3571
ORONO — University of Maine President Robert A. Kennedy announced today that he has selected Edna Mora Szymanski, dean of the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park, to be UMaine’s new senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. Szymanski began her academic career in 1989 as a faculty member in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Dept. of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education. She also served as an associate dean and department chair at Wisconsin before assuming the dean’s role at Maryland in 1999. She was chosen for the UMaine post following a national search.
“Dean Szymanski is an outstanding scholar and a proven leader in higher education,” Kennedy says. “She brings an impressive record of accomplishment, as a faculty member, as a researcher and as an administrator at two of the country’s top land-grant universities. She is eminently qualified and well-prepared to become a provost, and I am certain that she will be a great addition to the UMaine community.”
Szymanski’s appointment is subject to final approval by the University of Maine System Board of Trustees. Chancellor Joseph Westphal signed off on Kennedy’s selection late Thursday.
“The University of Maine is an excellent institution with great possibilities,” Szymanski says. “I look forward to working with President Kennedy, the faculty, staff, students and alumni to implement the exciting directions that the university has planned.”
Szymanski earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1972, followed by a master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Scranton in 1974. She worked as a senior vocational rehabilitation counselor in the New York State Office of Vocational Rehabilitation until 1986, before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, in special education, in 1988. Szymanski is a prolific scholar, with over 100 publications to her credit. She has also won several awards for her research and her research supervision.
She is expected to begin work at UMaine on Aug. 15.
Szymanski will succeed John Mahon, who has served as UMaine’s interim provost since August of 2004, when Kennedy was elevated from that job to the interim presidency. Mahon remained provost when Kennedy became UMaine’s 18th president in April 2005. He will return to the UMaine College of Business, Public Policy and Health faculty, as the John M. Murphy Chair of International Business Policy and Strategy.
“John has done outstanding work as interim provost, applying his enormous intellect and trademark energy to a number of important initiatives, while managing the vast responsibilities of that role,” Kennedy says. “I thank John sincerely, and look forward to continuing to work closely with him.”
In the UMaine administrative structure, the provost is the university’s chief academic affairs officer, with broad responsibilities related to graduate education, undergraduate education, research and student affairs.
Note: a photo of Edna Mora Szymanski is available upon request.