Dr. Kent Buchanan, assistant provost, has been named the interim provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Buchanan will step into the positions July 1 after current provost Dr. Susan Barber retires June 30, according to an email that was sent out to the campus community May 7.
Buchanan has been assistant provost since 2012 and has gained experience that prepares him for the interim position, the email read. In the position, he will lead the preparation for the Higher Learning Commission Assurance Review report due in November, a report to reaffirm the university’s accreditation through the Open Pathway process that includes a monitoring report assigned to OCU at the last accreditation visit in 2011. Buchanan has been a part of the process with Barber and is also trained as a peer reviewer for the HLC.
A national search for the position will begin while Buchanan is standing in.
Buchanan is a professor of biology and served as a chairman of biology at OCU. Before he came to OCU in 2006, he was a professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He also has been an educator and biomedical research at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, both in Oklahoma City.
He earned his bachelor of science and master of science degrees in microbiology from OU, then received his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology at OU Health Sciences Center.
Buchanan has served on several committees at the departmental, college and administrative levels. He also has served on the Science Museum of Oklahoma’s board of trustees for six years.
“I am especially proud of Kent’s appointment by Governor Brad Henry in 2010 to serve a six-year term on the Board of Regents of the Oklahoma School of Science and Health,” President Robert Henry wrote in the email.
Henry wrote in the email that he appreciates Buchanan taking on the responsibility.
Buchanan was unavailable for comment on May 7.
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