New Appointments and Interim Structure
Office of International Programs
August 8, 2006
I am pleased to inform you that Jim Perry, HT Morse Distinguished University Professor and Head of the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, has been appointed Interim Associate Vice President and Dean of International Programs. As you will recall, this appointment follows an internal University nomination and selection process. A search for a permanent associate vice president will be conducted during the academic year.
Jim has the proven administrative and leadership skills to advance the international elements of our strategic positioning efforts. He has both deep and broad international experience. He has been a visiting scholar in England, Poland, and India; works closely with the United Nations Environment Programme; and was the deputy director of the US/AID Environmental Training Project for Central and Eastern Europe. He trains graduate students to meet the needs of natural resource professionals worldwide, including current or recent work in Borneo, Brazil, Ukraine, China, Israel, South Africa and Cameroon. His teaching and writing include international components, including courses on international water quality and ecosystem management in Central and Eastern Europe.
As Interim Associate Vice President and Dean, Jim will provide system-wide administrative oversight of the Office of International Programs, International Student and Scholar Services, Learning Abroad Center, Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, and the China Center. This position will provide leadership to promote and support the global dimensions of teaching, research, and engagement across the University; create and expand global opportunities and programs; seek new opportunities for faculty and staff to work across disciplinary lines; and concentrate on learning outcomes that create globally competent graduates. The Dean title has been added to this position to facilitate greater collaboration across all colleges and campuses and to emphasize the importance of internationalization to all our academic endeavors.
In addition to Jim’s appointment as Interim Associate Vice President and Dean, we also have appointed Regents Professor Allen Isaacman as Assistant Vice President for International Scholarship. This is a part-time administrative appointment; Allen also will continue to serve as Professor of African History and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change. As Assistant Vice President, Allen will help support transnational interdisciplinary scholarly partnerships, coordinate an annual awards process for international scholarships and research and learning circles, support a series of visiting international fellows, and develop external funding possibilities for global studies.
Allen has engaged in extensive field research on the social and agrarian history of Southern Africa. He has published six books including one which received the 1973 Melville Herskovits Award as the most distinguished monograph in the field of African Studies. He has edited six other books and written more than 50 scholarly articles. Allen has been awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the John D. and Catherine T. Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Fulbright Program and has worked closely with a number of major foundations. More than 30 of his graduate students have completed their doctoral dissertations in African history and he has received the University's Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award.
Please join me in congratulating Jim Perry and Allen Isaacman on their appointments. Their recognized leadership across this institution and from having served on the strategic positioning task force on Forging an International University will allow us to establish priorities, implement recommendations, and further define the comprehensive international efforts needed to transform our University. Please also join me in recognizing the many outstanding contributions to international programs by Associate Vice President C. Eugene Allen. Gene will be of transition assistance this month and plans to begin his new half-time appointment in September as part of a forthcoming phased retirement.
Robert J. Jones
Senior Vice President for System Academic Administration