Donde Plowman, finalist for the position of executive vice chancellor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will attend campus forums and meet with the university community Dec. 5 and 6.
Earlier this month, the 28-member search committee led by Arts and Sciences Dean Joseph Francisco and Sherri Jones, chair of the department of special education and communication disorders, recommended that Plowman be considered a finalist for the position. The forums are part of the selection process, which will be followed by time for open feedback to be submitted on the candidate, prior to any hiring decisions.
A faculty forum will be from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and a public presentation will be from 1 to 2:15 p.m. Dec. 6. Both will take place in the Nebraska Union Auditorium. Plowman is the James Jr. and Susan Stuart Endowed Dean of Nebraska’s College of Business Administration.
The executive vice chancellor reports directly to the chancellor, is the chief academic officer and is the responsible authority in the absence of the chancellor. The executive vice chancellor will lead and direct the university’s academic enterprise. The executive vice chancellor is the intellectual and academic leader at the university with the mission of achieving excellence across all parameters. Nebraska’s academic deans, other than those in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, report directly to the executive vice chancellor.
Plowman came to Nebraska in 2010. Under her leadership as dean, the college has experienced rapid growth, including construction of a new $84 million, 240,000-square-foot building to open in August 2017. In 2016, the University of Nebraska Foundation awarded Plowman the Harlan J. Noddle Award for Distinguished Development Service for her efforts in raising $150 million for the college, including more than $80 million for the new building. She was also instrumental in forming the Don O. Clifton Strengths Institute made possible by a $30 million gift from the Clifton Family and Gallup organization.
During Plowman’s tenure, several new programs have been initiated at the college. They include the CBA Honors Academy, Career Services at CBA, a certificate program in Sales Excellence, a new master’s program in intercollegiate athletics administration that partners with Husker Athletics and a new Department of Business Analytics and Supply Chain Management.
Enrollment has also increased the last six years by 22 percent with a 14 percent increase in graduate students in fall 2016. Additionally, 50 new faculty members joined CBA during Plowman’s tenure.
A well-known scholar in the area of leadership and organizational change, Plowman’s publications have appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organizational Science, Leadership Quarterly, Decision Sciences and others. She was awarded one of the most highly coveted awards in her field – the Academy of Management Journal Best Paper award – for her paper, “Radical Change Accidentally: The Emergence and Amplification of Small Change” in 2008.
Prior to coming to Nebraska, she was head of the Management Department at University of Tennessee. Previously, she was a member of the faculty and associate dean for Graduate Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio for nine years. She received her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin and her undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University.
For more information on the search for the executive vice chancellor, click here.
