On her first official day on the job, new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Beverly Wendland has a message for Mountaineers, Catamounts, and Golden Bears across the WVU System.
To the University community,
Today marks my first official day as your new provost and vice president for academic affairs, and I couldn’t be more excited about joining the West Virginia University family and calling the Mountain State my new home.
I’m originally from California. As a kid, I loved to read. I was the first in my family to graduate from college when I earned an undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego, and, later, a doctoral degree in neurosciences from Stanford. I first joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University in 1998, setting the academic career path that led me to Morgantown at an important time in the University’s history.
Since the announcement of my selection in January, I have been working to get to know WVU and its people. I look forward to opportunities for all of you to get to know me better, too. Over the past few months, I have already developed a deep appreciation for the institution and its mission, as well as the strong sense of community that exists here.
During this time, I have focused on some key initiatives that I believe will have long-term effects on our institution.
Along with senior leaders and faculty and staff colleagues, I have been honored to participate in the search process for several key leadership roles.
In April, we welcomed our new WVU Libraries and Press Dean Mark Paris, and today (July 1) is the first official day for Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Linda and Don Brodie Dean Clayton Thyne. I look forward to working with these new colleagues as members of the decanal leadership team.
We are also renewing the search for our next dean of the College of Law, and there will be many opportunities for your engagement in that process this fall.
In late spring, we also embarked on a search for our next vice president for research. As chair of this committee, I am committed to helping our institution identify the most talented candidates and ensuring collaboration and transparency throughout the process. We are currently in the discovery phase and will begin initial interviews with potential candidates in August. We hope to bring top finalists to campus early in the fall semester and invite the WVU community to participate in those public sessions.
I’m sure many of you read the announcement about the new partnership we just launched with Johns Hopkins University, which centers on a $7 million joint-funded program supporting high-impact research collaborations between faculty at both institutions. The JHU-WVU Research Collaborative is an innovative approach to fostering cross-institutional research in priority areas like neuroscience and population health, among others.
By creating new opportunities, such as this partnership, and ensuring our faculty have the support and resources they need to do their very best work, we will continue to strengthen WVU and position ourselves to become increasingly competitive for membership in the Association of American Universities under the leadership of President Michael T. Benson.
I’m looking forward to collaborating with President Benson and all of you as we work together to strengthen the frameworks that support and inspire excellence among our faculty, research, teaching, and academic programs in meaningful and measurable ways.
We have so many reasons to be optimistic about what is ahead for West Virginia University. Let’s tap into all that potential to proudly serve our students and our land-grant mission as West Virginia’s flagship, R1 higher education institution.
Let’s Go!
Beverly Wendland
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs