The search for the next NDSU provost has been narrowed to an outstanding group of five candidates. Campus visits have been scheduled in September.
During the finalists’ visits to NDSU, each candidate will have a series of interviews and participate in an open forum in the McGovern Alumni Center’s Reimers Conference Room. The room is small and seating is limited, so all open forums will also be live streamed.
“The search committee is very excited to have these five provost candidates as finalists for this very important position on campus,” said search committee chair Charles D. Peterson, professor and dean of the College of Health Professions. “There is great diversity in this candidate pool regarding their backgrounds, experiences and ideas for advancing the academic affairs mission of the university. We are looking forward to a successful outcome as we enter the final stages of this important search process.”
The finalists include:
• Greg Summers, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, who is scheduled to visit campus Sept. 3-4. An open forum is set for Friday, Sept. 4, at 10 a.m.
• Charlene Gilbert, professor and dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Toledo, is set to come to the NDSU campus Sept. 9-10. Her open forum is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 10, at 10 a.m.
• Jeffrey Thompson, professor of physics and dean of the College of Science at the University of Nevada, Reno, is scheduled to be interviewed Sept. 10-11. His open forum is set for Friday, Sept. 11, at 10 a.m.
• Kathy Cooke, professor of history and founding dean of the Honors College at the University of South Alabama, will come to campus for interviews Sept. 15-16. Her open forum is scheduled Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 10 a.m.
• David Bertolini, NDSU professor of architecture and landscape architecture and dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, is set to be interviewed Sept. 17-18. His open forum is scheduled Friday, Sept. 18, at 10 a.m.
Greg Summers
Summers has held his current position at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point since 2011. He has experience managing the changing landscape of higher education: ranging from curricular reform, assessment, accreditation and improving student support to advancing strategic plans, capital campaigns, new budget models, restructured institutions and partnerships to expand regional opportunity. His major recent accomplishments include the creation of a teaching and learning center at UW-Stevens Point with diversity and inclusivity as defining values, the creation of the University College to help align and expand student support and the integration of two new branch campuses into the university to broaden regional access to educational opportunities.
He earned his bachelor’s degrees at the University of Akron, Ohio, master’s degree in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Charlene Gilbert
Gilbert has held her dean’s position since July 2017. Prior to that, she was dean and director of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at The Ohio State University at Lima. Her work history also includes chair of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Toledo. Early in her career, she was on the faculty at American University, Washington, D.C., and State University of New York at Buffalo.
Gilbert earned her bachelor’s degree at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, and her Master of Fine Arts in film and media arts at Temple University, Philadelphia.
Jeffrey Thompson
As dean of the College of Science at the University of Nevada, Reno, Thompson administers the biology, chemistry, mathematics and statistics, physics and psychology departments and the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering. He joined the faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1991, and has also served as physics department chair and associate dean of the College of Science.
Thompson grew up in Tennessee, and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned his doctorate in physics from the University of Tennessee and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado.
Kathy Cooke
Cooke is a first-generation college student who earned her undergraduate degree at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She earned her doctorate in history of science at the University of Chicago, and held a postdoctoral position at the California Institute of Technology before her first faculty position at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. She moved to the University of South Alabama in 2017.
As the chief academic officer of the Honors College, Cooke strives to be a thought partner as well as a leader. She led the team that developed the mission that now guides the college’s budgeting, strategic planning, admissions, curriculum, faculty, new programs, research, community partnerships and experiential learning. She also works closely with housing, the library, Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Office of Marketing. She is an active scholar who studies American history and science, in particular the history of biology and agriculture, and has received grants from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Alabama Humanities Foundation. She has published in a range of academic journals, including Isis (the journal of the History of Science Society) and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
David Bertolini
Bertolini has been dean of the NDSU College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences since July 2017. He is a past chair of the NDSU Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and previously was the graduate coordinator in the School of Architecture at Louisiana State University. His leadership focuses on increasing the value and importance the university provides to students, all aspects of diversity and increasing excellence in research and creative accomplishments.
His research focuses on how ideology constructs subjectivity and is expressed in architecture, literature and film. He was co-editor of the book, “Architecture Post Mortem.” Additionally, he was chair of the Fargo Public Art Commission and established a National Organization of Minority Architects student chapter at NDSU. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida, Gainesville, his Master of Architecture degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, and his doctorate in English at Temple University, Philadelphia.
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