ASU’s nursing dean search down to three finalists

Three finalists for the Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions will make visits to Arkansas State University during the next two weeks.

The chair of the search, Dean of Sciences and Mathematics Lynn Boyd, said the selection committee’s finalists are Dr. Edmund Acevedo of Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Shawn Drake of Arkansas State University, and Dr. Tara Tietjen-Smith of Texas A&M University at Commerce.

Each will have a public presentation open to the campus community during their visits. All three sessions will be from 2 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. in room 112 of the Health, Physical Education and Sport Sciences (HPESS) building.

Acevedo will visit Monday (Feb. 15). Currently the associate dean for strategic initiatives in the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, Acevedo was a professor and chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at VCU for a decade from 2006 to 2016 prior to becoming the associate dean for graduate studies at VCU for three years.

Tietjen-Smith will visit Thursday. Currently, a full professor at Texas A&M University at Commerce, Tietjen-Smith has served as the department head for Health and Human Performance in the School of Nursing for the past five years, overseeing one of the largest departments on campus both in total faculty and students. Previously, she was the graduate coordinator for TAMU-Commerce’s College of Education and Human Services.

Drake will visit Feb. 23. Currently, a full professor and department chair of the Department of Physical Therapy at Arkansas State University, she also serves as the assistant dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions at ASU. Drake joined ASU in 2002 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 2008. Prior to arriving in Jonesboro, Drake was an assistant professor at Valdosta State and served as an adjunct faculty member at University of Southern Mississippi.