University of Southern Maine

News Releases

Mark B. Lapping Named USM's Interim Provost

June 1, 2007

Mark B. Lapping has been named University of Southern Maine interim provost and vice president of academic affairs for the 2007-2008 academic year. Lapping is taking over for Provost Joseph S. Wood, who will serve as USM's interim president beginning July 1, after Richard L. Pattenaude becomes chancellor of the University of Maine System.

This is not a new position for Lapping, who served as USM's provost from 1994 to 2000. He then returned to the faculty as professor of public policy and management in USM's Muskie School of Public Service. He subsequently was named USM's first Distinguished Professor in recognition of his contribution to scholarship, teaching and service. In 2005-2006, he was the interim president of Unity College.

Lapping holds a B.S. from the State University of New York, New Paltz, and a Ph.D. from Emory University. In the Muskie School, he teaches land use policy and planning, community development, natural resource economics and planning, and intellectual foundations of public policy. Prior to joining USM, he was the founding dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

He and his wife, Joyce, who is USM's director of prior learning assessment, are residents of Cumberland.

>more news releases