School of Allied Health and 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. She is chair of the executive committee for the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice, and was appointed to the American Hospital Association’s Commission on Workforce for Hospitals and Health Systems.

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: Before coming to KU, Fuerst had been an associate dean at Texas A&M University and senior manager in the consulting practice of Price Waterhouse in Dallas.

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. Before coming to KU, she had been dean of continuing education at Marywood University in Pennsylvania and associate dean for university extension at the University of Kentucky. KU’s Continuing Education program includes services at KU Medical Center, Law Enforcement Training Center in Hutchinson and fire service training in Lawrence.

School of Education

Dean: Angela Lumpkin.

Start date: 2001.

Career: Lumpkin was dean of education at State University in West Georgia before coming to KU. She holds a doctorate in sports history from Ohio State University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina. The KU school has a national reputation, especially its special education program, which U.S. News has ranked No. 1 in the nation seven times since 1995.

Edwards Campus

Dean and Vice Chancellor: Robert Clark.

Start date: 1997.

Career: Clark was dean at Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Mo., before heading KU’s Overland Park campus. He is leading the campus through an expansion plan that includes a new $17 million, 82,000-square-foot facility under construction. Clark is a graduate of Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management and holds a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.

School of Engineering

Dean: Stuart R. Bell.

Start date: 2002.

Career: Bell came to KU from the University of Alabama where he was chair of the department of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies. At KU, he has worked to strengthen the school’s research and graduate study efforts, while also overseeing a $15-million expansion of the engineering complex on the Lawrence campus.

School of Fine Arts

Dean: Steve Hedden.

Start date: 2003.

Career: Hedden, a native of Colby, started at KU in July. He previously served as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Wichita State University for one year. Prior to that, he had been at the University of Arizona since 1987, serving as College of Fine Arts vice dean since 2000. Hedden earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from KU.

School of Journalism and Mass Communications

Dean: James Gentry.

Start date: 1997.

Career: Gentry is entering his final year as dean. He has announced he will resign at the end of the academic year to return to full-time teaching and research. He came to KU from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he was journalism dean for five years. Before that, he taught at the University of Missouri.

School of Medicine

Dean: Barbara F. Atkinson.

Start date: 2002.

Career: Before becoming dean, Atkinson chaired the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the KU Medical Center. Atkinson has edited several books on cytophatholgy, the diagnosis of disease based on cellular analysis. She came to KU from the MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine in Philadelphia. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences’ prestigious Institute of Medicine in 1997.

Graduate School and International Programs

Dean: Diana Carlin.

Start date: 2000.

Career: Carlin joined the KU faculty in 1987. A Kemper award winner for teaching excellence, she has specialized in the field of political communication. She has served on the advisory board to the nation’s presidential debates commission and has chaired the board for the Kids Voting project in Kansas. She earned her doctorate from the University of Nebraska.

School of Law

Dean: Stephen McAllister.

Start date: 2000.

Career: Before coming to KU 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 has earned several awards, including the W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching excellence in 1999. He is a native of Lucas.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Dean: Kim Wilcox.

Start date: 2002.

Career: Before becoming dean at KU, Wilcox was president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Board of Regents. He earlier had been chair of KU’s speech-language-hearing department. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the largest of KU’s 14 schools, with annual budget of $60 million in state funds and more than $27 million in grants and contracts.

School of Pharmacy

Dean: Jack Fincham.

Start date: 1994.

Career: A native of Marysville, Fincham once owned a pharmacy and was a long-term care consultant pharmacist. His research interests include adverse drug effects, drugs and the elderly and smoking cessation. Under his leadership, the KU school now ranks third among all 85 pharmacy schools in research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Fincham has a Ph.D. 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. Her areas of interest include social policy, social work theory and women’s issues. During her deanship, the KU school has frequently appeared on U.S. News’ list of the nation’s top 20 social work schools. Weick earned her master’s from the University of California at Berkeley and her doctorate from Brandeis University.