A Heartfelt Thank You to the Provost Search Committee

Dear WesternU Campus Community,

In the spirit of optimizing communication and transparency, and establishing new precedence, I wanted to share with you an in-depth look at the extensive search process undertaken for this key position. The members of the Provost Search Committee, with dedication, thoughtfulness and professional excellence, facilitated a robust and effective search. For this, their efforts are greatly appreciated and should be broadly recognized by the campus community.

To increase standardization, transparency, and collaboration in the institutional decisionmaking of key hiring decisions, shortly after my appointment as President, I developed and implemented institutional guidelines which address the Appointment of University-level Administrators (https://www.westernu.edu/university/governance/), based on the direct input from the Academic Senate, Deans Council, and the University Executive Operations Team.

As a result, the Provost Search was a national search facilitated in alignment with these institutional guidelines and included representation from all five branches of governance, and included an executive search consultant from the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) Search (https://agb.org/executive-search/), a premier organization which specializes in higher education recruitment. Included below are highlights of the Provost Search Committee’s thorough, comprehensive and collaborative search process, followed by a comprehensive fact infographic detailing the key events in the search process.

On Dec. 1, 2021, Interim President Sylvia Manning established the Provost Search Committee. The Committee was chaired by Steven Friedrichsen, DDS, Dean Emeritus, College of Dental Medicine, and initially co-chaired by Beverly Guidry, EdD (University Executive Operations Team). In April 2022, Dr. Guidry stepped down and was replaced by Stephanie Bowlin, EdD, PA, as the UEOT Representative. In July 2022, Raj Kandpal, PhD, as the Academic Senate representative on the search, and Dr. Bowlin were named as Co-Chairs.

The remaining membership included:

Elizabeth Hoppe, OD, MH, DrPH (Dean’s Council)

Melissa Lopez, PhD (Staff Council)

Matthew Viramontes, DPM 2024 (SGA)

Donna Emanuele, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, ENP-C, CNS, FAANP (College of Graduate Nursing)

Rosana Bravo, PhD, MPH (College of Health Sciences)

Manel Lopez-Bejar, DVM, PhD (College of Veterinary Medicine)

Rick Leeper, MBA (College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific – Northwest)

Valerie Quan, OD, FAAO (College of Optometry)

Patrick Chan, PharmD, PhD (College of Pharmacy)

Working with AGB as its search consultant, the Committee began the work of establishing a leadership profile and identifying potential candidates for the Committee’s review. Working together, the committee developed a leadership profile that was published in August 2022. In further consultation with AGB, the search committee also established a rubric, evaluation criteria and questions for screening candidates. These criteria were adopted, as with any search, by the entirety of the search committee.

After the screening of applicants, the Committee conducted initial interviews of eight candidates. Ultimately, four candidates were brought forth as finalists and asked to engage in an extensive campus interview process. Over the course of two days, each candidate would participate in:

1. In-person meetings with the 5 Branches of Governance (UEOT, Deans Council, Staff Council, Academic Senate, and SGA) for one-hour interviews;
2. a campus-wide Townhall (via Zoom);
3. a breakfast meeting with available Provost Search Committee members on Day 1;
4. a breakfast meeting with available Office of the Provost staff on Day 2; and
5. a lunch meet and greet with available University of Student Affairs staff on Day 2

The result of this extensive process was to involve and empower all committee members, as well as the community, to share their opinions and offer counsel to the president in selecting the next provost. The result of this process was the selection of Dr. Paula Crone as WesternU’s Provost and Chief Academic Officer on Feb. 6, 2023.

Provost Search Key Events:

In conclusion, please join me in heartedly thanking each of the search committee members, the co-chairs – Dr. Kandpal and Dr. Bowlin, and the Chair – Dr. Friedrichsen, for their immeasurable service and contribution to the Provost Search process and, by extension, to the advancement of WesternU’s mission.

Robin