Toward the end of Spring Quarter, Ohio University announced Ryan Lombardi as the new interim vice president for Student Affairs — drawing the national search to a close. But Lombardi’s appointment was only one of four OU had hoped to make.
OU finished three more searches during the summer, though only two were successful. The university appointed Kenneth Johnson as the new dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and Deborah Gearhart as the vice provost for eLearning and Strategic Partnerships.
Kenneth Johnson replaced Jack Brose, the previous dean of OU-HCOM. Brose announced his retirement in September 2011, but revealed in July his plans to serve as vice provost for health affairs and special assistant to the executive vice president and provost for three years, according to a July Post article.
While he was dean of OU-HCOM, Brose made $216,373 per year; Johnson will make $400,000. Brose will make $215,000 per year in his new position.
Johnson came to OU from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he was the associate dean for educational programs and vice dean. He earned his degree in osteopathic medicine at the same institution.
Johnson began in his new role at OU on Aug. 20.
“As the new dean, I am looking forward to serving and building on the great work that has brought OU-HCOM into the forefront of osteopathic medical education,” Johnson said in a university news release.
Another national search resulted in the selection of Gearhart as the vice provost for eLearning and Strategic Partnerships. Previously, she was the director of eTROY at Troy University.
Gearhart, who has 26 years of experience in the field, will replace Dan Evans, who retired in May 2011 through the faculty early retirement program. Evans will work with Gearhart this year on strategic partnerships.
Ed Yost served as interim executive director of eLearning during the search. Gearhart began July 9.
“I’m hoping that I can build out Ohio University to outside learners … to provide learning opportunities to those who don’t have them,” Gearhart said, adding that she would like to focus on revitalizing efforts to provide education to adults in correctional facilities.
The position of associate provost for faculty will remain unfilled coming into the new year, after an offer was made to an applicant but not accepted, said Ann Fidler, chief of staff for Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit and Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding.
Due to additional searches this year, Fidler said she was unsure when the university would begin another search for the position.
“We’re still sort of figuring out how we are going to time these searches because we have the (College of Fine Arts) dean search — that needs to go forward in the fall — we’ve got the (Scripps College of Communications) dean search, … and we have the executive dean for regional higher education,” Fidler said.
bv111010@ohiou.edu
