The University’s search for the founding dean of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy is progressing as the search committee narrows down candidates to a group of finalists who will be invited to Grounds next month.
The finalists, whom University Provost Arthur Garson referred to in an e-mail as a “group of incredibly distinguished finalists,” were selected after a series of off-Grounds interviews, Batten School Director David Breneman said.
The search committee, chaired by Garson, consists of a Board of Visitors member, a member of the Miller Center of Public Affairs’ Board of Directors, as well as various faculty members, Garson stated in an e-mail. He noted that the committee hopes to have a final candidate selected by early July.
According to the University’s online invitation to apply for the position, the University has hired a national executive search firm called Isaacson, Miller to collaborate with the committee throughout the search process.
The online invitation also states that “the Search Committee seeks a visionary Dean ... with a grip on the history of the field and a passion for its future,” as well as “a dean who will found and lead a nationally distinguished school, charting a new direction for the field of public policy and leadership education.”
Todd Eley, a fifth-year student in the school’s Masters in Public Policy program, agreed that because the new dean will be the school’s founding dean, he or she will have a great deal of influence on the school’s future direction.
Breneman noted that the new dean particularly will affect how the school infuses leadership into all of its courses.
Breneman added that he believes the new dean should be a first-class academic who also has extensive experience outside of the academic world. Eley echoed Breneman’s thoughts, adding that the new dean needs to have knowledge of multiple areas within the political realm.
“We obviously want someone who has experience in all levels of government, someone who has enough contacts with those areas to branch out beyond what [the master’s in public policy program has] been getting so far, which is largely a national focus,” Eley said.
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