ECU picks vice chancellors
(July 12, 2002) — Chancellor William V. Muse has named two veteran higher-education leaders from Virginia and West Virginia to fill vice chancellor positions at East Carolina University.
Dr. William Swart, dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University, will become provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Dr. Michael Lewis, vice chancellor for health sciences for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, has been appointed vice chancellor for health sciences.
The provost is the chief academic officer of the university and the vice chancellor for health sciences oversees the Brody School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and the School of Allied Health Sciences. Swart and Lewis were chosen after national searches that attracted scores of applications and nominations. Their appointments will be effective in August.
Muse discussed the appointments with the ECU Board of Trustees last week, and the University of North Carolina Board of Governors approved them at its meeting today (July 12).
“I am delighted that two such eminently qualified academic leaders have agreed to join East Carolina,” Muse said. “I am tremendously impressed by the accomplishments and vision of both Dr. Swart and Dr. Lewis, and I know that the university will enthusiastically welcome them.”
Swart has been dean at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va., since 1997. Previously he was dean of engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology and held faculty positions at the University of Central Florida, California State University at Northridge, and the University of Miami. He is also a former corporate vice president for management information systems at the Burger King Corp.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Clemson University and a master’s in industrial and systems engineering and a doctorate in operations research, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Lewis holds an M.D. from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. and master’s in chemical engineering from Virginia Tech. He has a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from West Virginia Institute of Technology.
He joined the policy commission last year after serving since 1992 as the associate vice president for health sciences at the West Virginia University Charleston Division, where he was responsible for the schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy.
He is a former associate dean of the medical school of the WVU Charleston Division and was a longtime faculty member at the WVU medical school in Morgantown.
He will succeed Dr. James Hallock, who left ECU in 2001 to head the organization that coordinates the training of foreign medical school graduates in the United States. Dr. Phyllis Horns, dean of the School of Nursing, has been serving as interim vice chancellor.
Swart succeeds Dr. Richard Ringeisen, who is now president of the University of Illinois at Springfield. Dr. Robert J. Thompson, director planning and institutional research, has been serving as interim vice chancellor of academic affairs.