A Kansas University graduate has been named chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

John E. Christensen, 58, was appointed chancellor of the roughly 14,000-student school on Tuesday after serving as interim chancellor since last fall.

His appointment is subject to approval by the state’s board of regents at a meeting later this month.

Christensen received a doctorate in speech-language pathology from KU, then started his academic career at UNO in 1978 as a faculty member in the department of special education and communication disorders. He later was chairman of that department for 12 years.