As a high-quality, high-tech academic institution, DMU will benefit with the addition in 2009 of a provost and chief information officer. So will its students and staff.
Karen McLean, Ph.D., M.S., began as provost in August after serving as acting dean of the College of Science and Health at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Her priorities include:
- updating the University’s strategic plan.
- spearheading the process for DMU’s re-accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. A commission site visit is planned for January 2012; preparation typically takes two years.
- creating a sense of equity and accountability across the colleges.
- evaluating faculty work assignments.
- working with human resources staff to make DMU more competitive among peer institutions in its faculty/staff hiring processes.
- serving as principal investigator on a new mobile clinic project, a partnership between DMU and Free Clinics of Iowa supported by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- strengthening the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Wayne Bowker became University CIO in June after serving as information technology (IT) director at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Because IT has an impact on all areas of a university, he is working to align those services with DMU’s needs and make them function as a strategic partner in achieving the University’s mission. His areas of emphasis for 2010 include:
- ensuring IT is a “customer-first” organization.
- continuing to improve the way the department communicates to faculty, staff and students.
- identifying project priorities and delivering on the right projects that help the University.
- ensuring that technology at DMU is compliant in all regulatory areas and that its computing environment is secure and agile to meet the University’s needs.
- creating and implementing new processes that will make IT services more efficient and effectively delivered.
