Ronnie Green, Harlan Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and vice president for agriculture and natural resources for the NU system, has been appointed to the position of interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNL.
Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced the appointment April 13. Green, who has been with the university since 2010, will continue in his IANR role during the interim period, which will begin July 1. The appointment is pending approval by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
“Ronnie has displayed remarkable leadership at IANR,” Perlman said in a message to faculty and staff. “Moreover, his interests and activities on behalf of the university have gone far beyond IANR. He comes to Academic Affairs informed about most of the major challenges and enthusiastic about supporting the deans and faculty.”
The senior vice chancellor for academic affairs is UNL’s chief academic officer and is the university’s responsible authority in the absence of the chancellor. The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor is charged with helping UNL achieve excellence across all areas of the academic enterprise through oversight of undergraduate teaching and learning; graduate mentoring; faculty development, promotion and tenure; resource allocation; strategic planning; and the development of innovative academic initiatives that will be recognized as unique signature strengths.
The senior vice chancellor’s office also is responsible for the administration, coordination, and development of general policies and functions applicable to all academic programs.
Green earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science from Virginia Tech and Colorado State University, respectively, and a doctorate in animal breeding and genetics jointly from UNL and the USDA-ARS U.S. Meat Animal Research Center.
Green was on faculty at Texas Tech University and Colorado State, and was the national program leader for animal production research for the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and executive secretary of the White House’s interagency working group on animal genomics within the National Science and Technology Council. In that role, he was a leader in the international bovine, porcine, and ovine genome sequencing projects.
He has published 130 refereed publications and abstracts, nine book chapters and 56 invited symposia papers and has delivered invited presentations in 43 U.S. states and 21 countries. He returned to UNL from Pfizer Animal Health, where he was senior global director of technical services for animal genomics.
“I am humbled by the trust placed in me to serve the university in this way during a time of unprecedented momentum,” Green said. “I look forward to collectively rolling up our sleeves to continue to advance and elevate UNL’s academic impact with a tremendously talented and visionary group of deans, academic leaders, faculty and staff.”
Ellen Weissinger, who has been senior vice chancellor for academic affairs since December 2009, announced last fall that she would step down on June 30. A university search committee for her successor recently concluded that the candidates for the position were not suitable to continue the process.
“It is clear the uncertainty of my tenure affected the search,” wrote Perlman, who announced April 1 that he would retire as chancellor on June 30, 2016, and return to the faculty at the College of Law.
The chancellor noted, however, that neither he nor Green intended to “coast” during the next year.
“There are important initiatives and opportunities to pursue and we will both be fully engaged, along with the rest of the campus administration, in addressing them,” Perlman wrote.
