Vice President & Chief Academic Affairs finalists named
October 18, 2024
The search committee has recommended three finalists to President Pitney for a successor for Vice President Paul Layer, who plans to retire after a 35-year career at UAF and UA. The finalists will visit Fairbanks later this month to meet with èßäÉçÇø¹ÙÍø leadership, system office academic affairs staff and governance liaisons. The finalists’ dialogs with governance liaisons will be available as Zoom webinars for faculty, staff and students (UA login required).
- Laurie Shanderson is the founder and CEO of Accreditation Insights, and previously served as the chancellor of Methodist College.
- Lester Sandres Rapálo most recently served as the president of Rockland Community College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
- Brian Smentkowski is the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Idaho, where he is also a professor of political science.
The candidates will be visiting Fairbanks October 23-25 for meetings with different stakeholder groups. To learn more about the finalists, including links to their CVs, please visit the VP-CAO finalists website.
We are planning a webinar forum for each of the candidates at 11 a.m. each day, set up as a Zoom webinar with governance members as panelists, and the webinar will be available to view for all other èßäÉçÇø¹ÙÍø affiliates; you will need to be logged in to your UA zoom account to access the webinar. Faculty Alliance Chair and search committee member Jennifer Carroll will host/moderate the forums.
We’ve also set up a question submission form where UA affiliates can submit questions to ask any/all of the candidates. A feedback form will be open from October 23 through October 30.
Please visit the VP-CAO finalists website if you have any questions or want more information.