Public invited to meet 3 candidates considered for UA’s Bumpers College dean

The University of Arkansas announced three candidates Wednesday (Sept. 20) being considered for the next dean of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

Michael Evans, Michael Looper and Jeff Edwards will hold open forums on Sept. 25, Sept. 27 and Oct. 2, respectively. Each meeting will be at 2:30 p.m. in the John A. White Jr. Engineering Hall, room 209.

Evans is a professor at Virginia Tech and director of the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. He previously worked at the UA from 2001 to 2018. Looper is a UA professor and head of the Department of Animal Science. Edwards is a UA professor and director of the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences.

According to a UA news release, during each open forum, one of the three candidates will focus on the theme “Strengths and Opportunities at the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences” and will also include thoughts and commentary on trends in agriculture, food and life sciences education and research.

The UA is searching for a replacement for Vice President for Agriculture Deacue Fields, who previously served as dean before assuming his current position.

Vice Chancellor for Economic Development Mike Malone chairs the dean search for Bumpers College.

“As chair of the dean search committee for Bumpers College, I am excited to see the high caliber and quality of all the candidates who applied,” Malone said. “The search committee and I are pleased to present these three finalists for consideration, and I’m confident that any one of these candidates would be an excellent choice for the position given their extensive experience at the U of A and in agriculture education and research.”

For more information on the dean candidates and the search process, visit the Bumpers College dean search website.