Two new statewide appointments announced

August 10, 2012

University Relations

Donald Smith was announced Wednesday, Aug. 8, as the new chief of the statewide Office of Human Resources. Smith has been serving in the position as interim chief since November 2011 and was appointed after a nation-wide search, which resulted in his selection by a university search committee.

Formerly, Smith was the system-wide executive director of labor and employee relations. He has accumulated more than 30 years of working experience in human resources and employee relations in both government and private business.

On the same day, President Gamble also announced that Dana Thomas will be the new vice president of academic affairs. Dr. Thomas served as vice provost and accreditation liaison officer for UAF.

Thomas is an alumnus of the UAF biology program and later earned a master’s and PhD in statistics.

Thomas was was born and raised in Fairbanks and developed UAF’s first statistics program in 1981. He has been a faculty member in statistics for 31 years and was chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for six years. In 2005, Dr. Thomas received the Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching Award.

Dr. Thomas is a member of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, a primary accreditation body for higher education in the northwest United States.

For more information, contact Kate Wattum at 907-450-8102 or kewattum@alaska.edu.