Kansas University’s outgoing provost will take a new job in Washington, D.C., he said Monday – the same day a second candidate was announced to fill the job he is vacating.

David Shulenburger, 60, will be the vice president for academic affairs at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, a nonprofit coalition of 214 public universities.

He said Monday he had worked frequently with the association during his time at KU, once chairing its committee on academic affairs. In his new job, he’ll work with universities to help them in their dealings with Congress.

“I’m going to help member institutions deal with policies on many of the matters that are showing up in federal legislation,” Shulenburger said.

State and university officials said Shulenburger’s appointment would be a boon to Kansas universities.

“Dave Shulenburger’s selection, aside from the prestige of having a Kansan in the job, will give our system a close connection to an organization that is engaged nationally in the critical educational issues of our time,” Reginald Robinson, CEO of the Kansas Board of Regents, said in a written statement.

Shulenburger, who also served as KU’s executive vice chancellor, had already planned to leave his KU post at the end of the academic year – though he had expected to remain with the university. He will take leave from KU in June to start his new job.

KU on Monday named a Colorado official as the second of five finalists for the job Shulenburger is vacating.

Jack O. Burns, vice president for academic affairs and research for the University of Colorado system, will spend three days visiting the KU campus. He is a professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at CU in Boulder.

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Burns will give a public presentation from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Dole Institute of Politics, which will be followed by a reception. Additional finalists will visit campus before Feb. 14. KU is looking for someone to replace Shulenburger, who is stepping down after 13 years as KU’s chief academic officer.

Burns, 53, earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Massachusetts and his master’s and doctoral degrees at Indiana University. He has worked at several other universities, including vice provost for research at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The first of five candidates for the job – Virginia Sapiro, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison – visited campus last week. The names of the remaining three candidates have not been made public.