Meet the candidates vying for UA’s open provost position

Keely Brewer | @keelykbrewer, Staff Reporter
April 29, 2020

Between April 13 and 27, five finalists for the position of executive vice president and provost delivered presentations via Zoom. The search for the position opened after Kevin Whitaker announced his intent to retire on Sept. 12, 2019. 

The position is one of five anticipated leadership changes set to occur in 2020. This is already one of the University’s highest seasons of administrative turnover, but with more uncertainty ahead, the provost will play a key role in deciding where the University’s money is spent.

Individual candidate profiles, feedback forms and links to video presentations are available to students, staff and faculty on the search website. Feedback forms must be completed April 30 before 5 p.m. CDT; Russell Mumper, chair of the search committee will accept additional feedback via email at [email protected]. 

We watched every presentation and live-tweeted key moments. Here are our takeaways: 

James T. Dalton

Dalton has served as dean and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Michigan’s College of Pharmacy since 2014. Since 1992 he has held various professorial positions at The Ohio State University and the University of Tennessee, taking a two-year entrepreneurial leave of absence to serve as vice president of preclinical research and development at a pharmaceutical company in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Susan L. Ganter

Ganter is dean and professor of mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide. She has served as dean since 2017, and has more than 30 years experience teaching mathematics at nine different institutions. Additionally, she spent a year as the executive director for the Association for Women in Science. 

Alan T. Dorsey

Since arriving at the University of Georgia in 2012, Dorsey has served as professor of physics and dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the university’s largest and most academically diverse college. He has over thirty years combined experience in higher education from the University of Florida and the University of Virginia. 

John B. Buckwalter 

Buckwalter has seven years of administrative experience as dean of the college of human and health sciences at Kansas State University. Prior to 2013, he held positions as associate dean for research and graduate studies and chair of the department of kinesiology at the University of Texas-Arlington. He has more than two decades of experience as an instructor and professor. 

Antonio D. Tillis 

Tillis has served as dean at both the University of Houston and College of Charleston, as well as chair of the African and African American studies program at Dartmouth College. He spent two summers as director of the Committee for Institutional Cooperation at Purdue University and led a summer study in Guanajuato, Mexico.