Fourth finalist for UAF chancellor position named

Submitted by Carla Bowning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
04/30/04

North Carolina State University’s Vice Chancellor for Extension and Engagement Stephen B. Jones is the fourth and final candidate slated to visit the University of Alaska Fairbanks to interview for the position now held by retiring UAF Chancellor Marshall Lind.

Jones will arrive on the UAF campus Monday, May 10 at 7:30 a.m. to meet with the UAF Chancellor Search Committee. He will host a series of open forums during his visit to Fairbanks, the first of which takes place Monday afternoon in the Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom from 1:30-2:45 p.m., followed by a 3:30-5 p.m. forum at the Tanana Valley Campus Center at 604 Barnette Street. A community reception for Jones will take place at TVCC from 5-6:30 p.m. On Tuesday, May 11, from 10:15-11:45 a.m., Jones will meet with faculty, staff and students in the Geophysical Institute’s Globe Room on the UAF campus.

Jones has held his current position at North Carolina State since 2001. As vice chancellor for university extension and engagement at NC State, Jones oversees the university’s extension, outreach, and distance and continuing education efforts, including its Cooperative Extension Service and the Centennial Campus, a 1,300-acre research park aimed at developing partnerships between the university and private businesses and government agencies. He also oversees the separate, 200-acre Centennial Bio-Medical Campus, which houses a College of Veterinary Medicine, and the Centennial Campus Partnership Office, which manages the two research campuses.

In his newly created position, he’s been responsible for reinventing the Cooperative Extension Service as the principal outreach arm of the university. NC CES today has a $100 million annual budget, supporting some 900 faculty and staff in 100 counties and the Cherokee Indian Reservation, as well as six 4-H conference facilities.

Prior to being tapped to refocus North Carolina State’s extension and community engagement activities, Jones was director of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System at Auburn University from 1997 to 2001. As Alabama CES director, he oversaw the unification of two, previously separate extension services established within the state under different land-grants to the university in 1862 and 1890.

From 1988 to 1997, Jones was an associate professor and assistant director of the School of Forest Resources at Pennsylvania State University. Jones’ research interests are primarily in the area of sustainable forestry, with a particular focus on three issues: resource sustainability, forest-based economic development and soil-site relationships.

Jones was at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry from 1985 to 1987, where he served as the director of the Northeast Petroleum-Forest Resources Cooperative and as a visiting instructor. He received his Ph.D. in Resources Management from SUNY in Syracuse in December 1987. His bachelor’s degree in forestry is also from SUNY Syracuse and he holds an associate degree in forestry from Maryland’s Allegany Community College.

Jones is currently a tenured professor in the College of Natural Resources Department of Forestry at North Carolina State University and serves on three Ph.D. committees. Prior to his academic career, Jones worked 12 years for the Union Camp Corp., a Fortune 500, multi-faceted paper and allied products manufacturer.

It is expected that the UAF Chancellor Search Committee will decide which of the four candidates’ names to forward to UA President Mark Hamilton for final selection by the end of May. The president’s decision will likely be known by July 1, the date current Chancellor Lind officially retires.

The first candidate to interview for UAF chancellor was Stephen G. Wells, president of the Desert Research Institute in Nevada. Wells visited UAF April 12-15. Dr. Jay Noren, executive vice president, provost and dean of the graduate college at the University of Nebraska, interviewed at UAF April 27-30 and University of Montana Provost Lois Muir is at UAF for campus interviews May 3-5.

For information on the chancellor search process, including search committee meeting minutes, a list of chancellor search committee members, dates of open forums, copies of the candidates’ full vitas and an online comment form, visit the chancellor search website at http://www.uaf.edu/chancellor/search/.

CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Carla Browning at (907) 474-7778 or visit the chancellor search website at http://www.uaf.edu/chancellor/search/ for more information.