Dialog, September 17, 2001

New Faculty

Dialog is pleased to introduce new full-time, regular faculty members to UA faculty and staff. Dialog has listed with pictures (depending on availability), name and title, division and area of specialty. All photos by University Relations photographers.

Deans

Arts and Sciences - Dr. Robert F. Olin
Named dean of the college in 2000, Olin has overseen an 86 percent increase in college contract and grant awards in the last year and the beginning of construction of the $50 million, state-of-the-art Shelby Hall Interdisciplinary Sciences Building. Under his leadership as dean, the college has opened the Mathematics Learning Center, which expanded this fall with the opening of the 240-computer Math Learning Center in Tutwiler Residence Hall. Last year, the University’s 15th Rhodes Scholar and 16th Goldwater Scholar were selected from the college. Previously, Olin was professor and head of the department of mathematics at Virginia Tech where he founded the Mathematics Emporium, which has received national recognition for its self-paced, computer-assisted program of mathematics instruction. Olin holds his doctorate from the University of Indiana.

Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration - Dr. J. Barry Mason
Dean of the college, Russell Professor of Business Administration and former chairman of the board of the 40,000-member American Marketing Association, Mason has led the business school to be recognized for offering a high-quality, cost-effective education. The college’s endowment now stands at a record high. The Angelo Bruno Business Library and Sloan Y. Bashinsky Computer Center are both state-of-the-art facilities. The Gourman Report has rated the business school’s undergraduate program as "very good," the highest ranking given to any business program in Alabama and placing it in the top 5 percent of undergraduate business programs in the country. Mason received his master’s and doctoral degrees in marketing at UA.

College of Communication and Information Sciences - Dr. E. Culpepper Clark
Before being named dean of the college, Clark served for six years as executive assistant to UA President E. Roger Sayers. Under Clark’s leadership, the college has grown in scope and mission by merging in 1997 with the School of Library and Information Sciences. One of the nation’s premiere programs for communication research, the Institute for Communication Research is a $3.5 million research facility dedicated to both academic research projects for students and faculty, and applied research projects for numerous commercial clients, including AT&T, GTE, Nickelodeon/MTV Networks, and Apple Computers. The author of several books, Clark received his doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

College of Community Health Sciences - Dr. William A. Curry
Curry, a physician and medical educator for more than 20 years, was named dean of the college in 1998. CCHS, a clinical branch campus of the UA School of Medicine, whose central campus is located in Birmingham, emphasizes family practice and other primary care disciplines, as well as providing education for third- and fourth-year medical students. The college also trains family doctors. Its research and outreach efforts emphasize rural issues and medical education. Curry received his bachelor’s degree from UA and his doctor of medicine degree from Vanderbilt University.

College of Continuing Studies - Dr. Carolyn C. Dahl
Dahl was recently named the new dean of the College of Continuing Studies at UA and will assume her new post in October. Dahl, who earned a doctorate from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, has been in her current position at Eastern Michigan since 1998, providing overall program leadership for Continuing Education and Public Service. She was successful in designing EMU’s first off-campus continuing education center and expanding off-campus programs by 33 percent, while expanding student credit production by 24 percent. UA’s College of Continuing Studies delivers educational opportunities to non-traditional students through off-campus degree programs, Weekend College, evening classes, distance education, child development training, independent study, professional development courses, and a wide variety of professional workshops, seminars, conferences and institutes.

College of Education - Dr. John P. Dolly
Dean of the college since 1995, Dolly successfully guided the college through its 1996 re-accreditation site visit by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Alabama State Department of Education. Other significant accomplishments during his tenure as dean have included the college’s transition to an upper division school in 1998 and the establishment of the Alabama Consortium for Educational Renewal (ACER) in 1997. Dolly received his Ed.D. in educational psychology from the University of Georgia.

College of Engineering - Dr. Timothy J. Greene
Dean of the College of Engineering since July 1999, Greene brought 19 years of academic engineering experience to UA. Under his leadership, the college has expanded its new freshman experience known as TIDE (Teaming and Introduction to Design and Engineering). This one-of-a-kind program, designed with National Science Foundation support, encourages active learning and teamwork building through frequent classroom exercises and small student groups. Total research funding for new awards in the college posted during calendar years 1995-2000 increased from $9.5 million in 1995 to $30.5 million in 2000. The college hired 10 new faculty members this year, and the scholarship productivity of the current faculty members continues to grow. Greene earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial engineering at Purdue University.

Graduate School - Dr. Ronald W. Rogers
Dean of the school and assistant academic vice president, Rogers is the first UA administrator to hold the combined position, a recommendation by a faculty-administration study committee on the Graduate School. During Rogers’ term, the National Alumni Association Graduate Fellowships have been funded through the popular UA collegiate license tag program, which has generated almost $6 million for graduate fellowships. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at Vanderbilt University.

The College of Human Environmental Sciences - Dr. Judy Bonner
Dean of the college since 1989, Bonner has overseen a tremendous growth in both student enrollment and an increase in faculty research projects. The number of majors has more than doubled, making HES the fastest growing academic division at UA. It has also seen an increase in contract and grant research monies from a few thousand dollars in 1989 to $6.2. million last year. HES’s professional programs have been ranked in the top 20 by the Gourman Report, a rating of undergraduate programs in American and international universities. Bonner received her doctorate from Ohio State University.

School of Law - Kenneth C. Randall
Dean of the school and the Thomas E. McMillan Professor of Law, Randall has led the school to exceed its fund-raising goals, to enhance its core curriculum, to establish two annual lecture series, to recruit highly qualified chair holders and both new and visiting faculty members, to support diversity, to garner approval of an international exchange program, and to improve its marketing and public and external relations at the state and national levels. Randall holds four law degrees including doctoral and master’s degrees from Columbia University, a master’s from Yale University and a juris doctor degree from Hofstra University.

Capstone College of Nursing - Dr. Sara E. Barger
Dean of the college since 1995, Barger successfully guided the college through its 2001 re-accreditation of its baccalaureate program and initial accreditation of its new and innovative Master’s in Nursing Case Management Program. Under her leadership, the college developed partnerships with Alabama’s community colleges to develop BSN and MSN educational mobility options for nurses with associate degrees. The college also opened a primary care clinic in rural Alabama to provide care for rural patients and rural learning experiences for students. Currently a fellow with the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program, Barger received her doctorate in public administration from the University of Georgia.

School of Social Work - Dr. James Princeton "Ike" Adams Jr.
Recently named dean of the school, Adams served as executive assistant to the provost for two years. In that position he had the responsibility of heading the provost’s initiatives in the areas of student relations, academic planning, space for academic programs, coordination of the faculty handbook, and serving as liaison with University committees. He has been a member of the UA School of Social Work since 1979 and has held every academic rank. In addition he served as assistant to the president from 1992-1997 and director of the UA Office of Economic and Community Affairs from 1993-1997. In 1997, he served for five months as a Presidential Fellow at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. He earned a master’s degree in social work at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and a Ph.D. in social work at the University of Minnesota.

University of Alabama Libraries - Dr. Louis Pitschmann
Pitschmann, who earned doctoral and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago, was recently named the new dean of University Libraries. He served the University of Wisconsin since 1986, most recently as associate director for collection development and management, overseeing areas of collection development, preservation services and facilities, and user services. UA’s libraries system provides services to its faculty, students, staff, and other scholars and information users through a system of discipline- and research-based libraries that hold more than two million cataloged items. In addition, the libraries contain extensive collections of phonograph records, maps, and manuscripts and serve as the regional depository for United States government publications.

Office of the Dean of Students - Dr. Tom Strong
Strong was appointed to this new position two years ago. He currently is responsible for those areas in Student Affairs that enhance student life including University Programs, Greek affairs, student organizations, parent orientation and issues of diversity. During his 28 years at UA, Strong has served in several key administrative positions including director of student services, director of housing, director of recreation, and associate dean of students. He oversees UA’s delayed rush activities for members of Greek organizations. Strong earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from UA.

Vice Presidents

Dr. Nancy Barrett - Provost and vice president for academic affairs since 1996, Barrett works to augment UA’s high potential for excellence as a major research institution, an innovator in undergraduate education, and a catalyst for economic development. She also works in partnership with other UA offices, such as the Office of Student Affairs to improve student services and enhance learning, to foster academic excellence and facilitate social interaction. Her goals also include gaining increased national recognition for UA’s graduate programs, recruiting to increase diversity in the faculty, increasing the five-year graduation rate for entering freshmen and renewing emphasis on international studies.

Robert A. Wright - Vice president for financial affairs and treasurer since 1982, Wright joined UA more than 30 years ago as chief accountant. In those three decades, Wright has helped to steer the University through periods of proration and other adversities, has watched the state allocation decrease as a percentage of UA’s budget, and remained steady on a course of financial stability for the short- and long-terms. Wright was named to his current post after the University emerged from a period of six percent proration followed by cutbacks and a moratorium on hiring. He has also overseen a major increase in facilities during his tenure, beginning with the Moody Music Building and Bryant Conference Center complex. Future plans for other facilities call for developing a funding plan to ensure the institution’s deferred maintenance needs are addressed.

Dr. Sybil Todd - Vice president for student affairs since 1998, Todd implemented a restructuring within student affairs designed to provide the best service possible to UA students. The hub of the organization is the dean of students office, where students are able to seek assistance on a wide variety of issues and interests. The UA Parents’ Association funds a 1-800 number that will also take the caller to this hub office. Todd served at the University of Virginia, where her experience included working as associate dean of students, assistant dean for academic and student affairs, and associate professor in the institution’s Curry School. She spent a year as a Fellow of the American Council of Education with the president of Rhodes College and with the executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. She has earned a national reputation for program development to foster student success. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in human growth and development from Arizona State.

Jeffrey P. McNeill - Vice president for advancement, McNeill oversees all of UA’s fund-raising programs, as well as alumni affairs, governmental affairs and university relations. The University receives about 17 percent of its budget from gifts, grants and contracts. Private gifts totaled some $30 million for UA’s 1998-99 fiscal year. McNeill had been vice chancellor for university advancement and president of the North Carolina State University Foundation since April 1992. Under his leadership, NC State launched "The Campaign for NC State Students" which in five years has raised more than $124 million, exceeding its original goal of $80 million. McNeill holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Gardner Webb College and a master’s degree in forest and resource management from Clemson University.