Two New Deans Will Lead Key USM Schools
The University of Southern Maine has announced two new hirings in key positions connected to the community. Betty Lou Whitford, a professor of education and co-director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching at Columbia University’s Teachers College, has been named the new dean of USM’s College of Education and Human Development (COEHD). COEHD has strong relationships with public schools in southern Maine. Whitford will take up her new post on August 1.
Jack W. Trifts, professor of finance at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, has been named the new dean of USM’s School of Business. He will assume his position at USM on July 1.
The University of Maine System Board of Trustees approved the appointments at their meeting on Monday, March 18.
Trifts, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Finance and Econometrics, also served as associate dean at the Crummer Graduate School of Business for a year and as interim dean in June 2000. The Crummer School has been ranked in the top fifty regional business schools by Forbes Magazine. From 1997 to 1999, he was director of the school’s two-year, full-time MBA program. He also was named “Outstanding Professor” several times by the school. Business education, he says, should include more than the latest theories. “To be successful, each student must also graduate with practical knowledge about his or her chosen field and preferably have gained at least limited experience within the industry.”
An expert on corporate finance and investment banking, Trifts has published articles and given numerous presentations on mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings and also has developed and taught seminars in financial management to corporate executives at a number of companies, including AT&T, IBM, and Westinghouse Electric.
Trifts has been active in regional finance associations, including the Southern Finance Association, the Eastern Finance Association, the Financial Management Association and the Efficient Healthcare Consumer Response. His community service includes volunteer leadership positions for Heart of Florida United Way.
Trifts succeeds Acting Dean John Bay, who will continue on the faculty. Bay said, “I am very pleased that Dr. Jack Trifts will be the next dean of the School of Business. With his help, the Crummer School has become one of the top regional business schools in the country. He is just the kind of leader USM's School of Business needs to take it to another level in fulfilling the charge of USM's Board of Visitors to become a nationally-recognized regional institution.”
USM’s commitment to this goal, which Trifts said was reaffirmed by the president, the faculty and the business community, was an important factor in his decision to accept the position. Additionally, he said, he was influenced by the quality of the faculty who will work with him and by the school’s partnership with the local business community. “The futures of the business community and the business school are inseparably linked,” he said. “There is not a single business community in this country that has prospered without the presence of a great university nearby to support it. Similarly, a business school cannot prosper without a partnership with a vibrant business community that supports its programs, hires its students, and shares its expertise. I am excited about the opportunity to work with USM and the business community to further their goals.”
Whitford succeeds Richard Barnes, who served USM’s COEHD as dean since 1992 and who decided to return to the college’s faculty. On her appointment, Barnes said, “Betty Lou Whitford has a national reputation for her research and consulting work with schools, universities and policy makers on school-university partnerships. Her work on teacher professional development and its effects on student learning have had a strong impact on the ways that universities and schools across the U.S. work with each other. A few years ago her research on the Southern Maine Partnership and its positive impact on USM's teacher education program played a major role in enhancing the ETEP program's national reputation. We are pleased that her past work here has led to her interest in coming to USM. With her as our new leader, we believe COEHD is well poised to take its place on a national stage as we strengthen our regional mission to serve the education and related human services professions.”
Whitford’s current research focuses on best approaches to teacher education, performance-based assessment, and partnerships between universities and schools. Whitford, who earned her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction and the sociology of education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has written numerous articles and edited books on such subjects as high-stakes testing, teacher decision making, and reform efforts. She has received grants and funding from the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Metropolitan Life Foundation, Lucent Technologies Foundation, the National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching and the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching.
Before moving to Teachers College at Columbia University, Whitford served as a member of the graduate faculty at the University of Louisville from 1981-1999. During most of that time, she was a professor in the Department of Secondary Education.
"I'm honored to have the opportunity to serve as dean of the College of Education and Human Development at USM,” Whitford said. “A major part of what attracts me to USM is the college’s national reputation for high quality programs that are responsive to their communities of practice. The other important factors in my decision are the progressive leadership at USM and the strong spirit of cooperation with the community. I look forward to supporting the faculty, staff, and students in building on the successes of the college and, with the help of local, regional, and national partners, enhancing opportunities for scholarship about and creating solutions to some of the challenges facing public education and our communities."
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