Colleges continue search for new veterinary deans

National Report — The search for new deans of Oklahoma State University's Center for Veterinary Health Sciences and the University of California-Davis' (UC-Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine are well underway.

Oklahoma State's search has progressed the furthest, with four candidates recently announced.

The final four candidates in the running to replace Dr. Michael Lorenz include Drs. Bonnie Beaver, David Hardin, Donald Reynolds and Jean Sander.

Lorenz, named dean in 2004 after serving for three years as interim dean, announced his departure in January, but promised to stay on as dean until a replacement was found, or until July 2012, whichever came first. A search for a new dean began immediately, college officials report.

The four final candidates were scheduled to visit Oklahoma's campus in late March and early April, but university officials say there is no deadline for a decision.

Beaver, former chair of the American Veterinary Medical Association Executive Board, is a professor in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science; Hardin is associate dean, professor and director of the professional program in veterinary medicine at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Reynolds is dean of Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island; and Sander is associate dean for academic and student affairs and a professor in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

A search for a new dean at UC-Davis also is under way, after the announcement last fall that Dr. Bennie Osburn would retire in June after 14 years at the veterinary school's helm.

The nomination period for Osburn's successor was opened March 11, but university officials don't have any information yet on candidates or when a replacement will be named.