School of Allied Health

School of Nursing

Dean: Karen Miller.

Start date: Nursing, 1996; Allied Health,1998.

Career: Miller has more than 20 years in hospital administration and academic teaching, including research and publications in the areas of health systems and financial management of clinical services. In one of her recent research projects, Miller investigated organizational and clinical outcomes of pain management for hospitalized children.

School of Architecture and Urban Design

Dean: John Gaunt.

Start date: 1994.

Career: Gaunt was a practicing architect for 32 years before coming to KU as dean of the School of Architecture. He is a former chief executive officer of Ellerbe Becket Inc., Minneapolis, Minn. Gaunt is leading the School of Architecture into a multiyear facilities improvement project that includes raising money for a new building that would be built next to the school’s home, Marvin Hall.

School of Business

Dean: William L. Fuerst.

Start date: 2000.

Career: Fuerst came to KU from Texas A&M, where he had been since 1979. Fuerst heads a business school that is involved with programs to help regional businesses tackle problems. The school also has a strong international presence and has become a resource for international business education services.

Continuing Education

Dean: JoAnn Smith.

Start date: 2001.

Career: JoAnn Smith, a Kansas City, Kan., native, also holds the title vice provost for university outreach. She has extensive experience in leadership and development of continuing education and has earned many national awards. She came to KU from the University of Kentucky where she worked for 17 years, culminating with a position as associate dean for university extension. KU’s Continuing Education program includes services at KU Medical Center, Law Enforcement Training Center in Hutchinson and fire service training in Lawrence, to mention a few.

School of Education

Dean: Angela Lumpkin.

Start date: 2001.

Career: Angela Lumpkin was dean of education at State University in West Georgia from 1996 to 2000. She was the head women’s basketball coach for North Carolina from 1974 to 1977. The School of Education has about 80 faculty members, about 30 professional staff members and about 2,700 students.

Edwards Campus

Dean and Vice Chancellor: Robert Clark.

Start date: 1997.

Career: Clark was dean of the School of Management at Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Mo., prior to his appointment as dean of KU’s Overland Park campus. Clark oversaw an $8 million fund-raising campaign for the Rockhurst management school.

School of Engineering

Dean: Stuart R. Bell.

Start date: 2002.

Career: Bell was selected earlier this year to replace Carl E. Locke. Bell was professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies at the University of Alabama. He joined the Alabama faculty in 1986 and had been chairman of the Alabama mechanical engineering department since 1995.

School of Fine Arts

Dean: Toni-Marie Montgomery.

Start date: 2000.

Career: Montgomery was described by KU officials as an artist, a skilled administrator and collaborator and a visionary leader. An internationally known pianist, Montgomery came to KU from Arizona State, where she oversaw its School of Music. Montgomery has performed at the piano across the U.S. and in Austria and Brazil. She was a founding member in 1988 of the Black Music Repository Ensemble of Columbia College, Chicago.

School of Journalism and Mass Communications

Dean: James Gentry.

Start date: 1997.

Career: Gentry came to KU from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he was dean of its School of Journalism for five years. Before that, he served on the faculty of the University of Missouri at Columbia School of Journalism. He also has experience working for newspapers. The KU School of Journalism is considered one of the top schools in the country.

School of Medicine

Dean: Barbara F. Atkinson.

Start date: 2002.

Career: Atkinson replaces Deborah Powell, who left the School of Medicine earlier this summer. Atkinson had been professor and chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Kansas University Medical Center. Atkinson has edited several books on cytophatholgy, the diagnosis of disease based on cellular analysis. She came to KU in January 2000 from the MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Graduate School and International Programs

Dean: Diana Carlin.

Start date: 2000.

Career: Carlin joined the KU faculty in 1987. She has specialized in the study of political communications. She has served on the advisory board to the commission that sets up the presidential debates every four years.

School of Law

Dean: Stephen McAllister.

Start date: 2000.

Career: Before coming to KU’s law faculty in 1993, McAllister was a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Clarence Thomas and Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He also was in private practice in Washington D.C. McAllister also has earned several awards, including the W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching excellence in 1999.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Dean: Kim Wilcox.

Start date: 2002.

Career: Wilcox was president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Board of Regents when he was named earlier this year as the new dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). He is a former chair of KU’s speech-language-hearing department. The CLAS is the largest of KU’s 14 schools with annual budget of nearly $60 million in state-allocated funds and more than $27 million in grants and contract monies.

School of Pharmacy

Dean: Jack Fincham.

Start date: 1994.

Career: Fincham was a pharmacy owner an long-term care consultant pharmacist prior to graduate school. His research interests have been in the areas of patient compliance, adverse drug effects, drug use and misuse among the elderly and smoking cessation therapies. Fincham has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Nebraska and a doctorate in social and administrative pharmacy from the University of Minnesota.

School of Social Welfare

Dean: Ann Weick.

Start date: 1988.

Career: Weick joined KU’s social work faculty in 1976 and has spent almost her entire academic career at KU. Her areas of interest include social policy, social work theory and women’s issues. From 1981 to 1988 she served as chair of the doctoral programs.