Lori Bergen, Ph.D., dean of Marquette University’s J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication, plans to part ways with the school to pursue a similar leadership position at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Bergen will become dean of the new College of Media, Communication and Information in Boulder, Marquette officials announced on Wednesday.
Bergen will remain at Marquette through the end of June and is slated to assume her new position on July 20.
Bergen has led Marquette’s College of Communication for the past six years. Among the most significant projects and programs she contributed to is the Perry and Alicia O’Brien Fellowship in solutions journalism. The fellowship program, made possible by an $8.3 million gift the college received in 2013, funds the work of three journalists each academic year. Journalists are based at Marquette, where they collaborate with students on large-scale public service journalism projects.
Bergen also helped steward a $3.5 million gift the college received last December for capital improvement projects in its Johnston Hall home.
“She has really set the college on a course where there’s tremendous potential to grow in our future,” said Brian Dorrington, Marquette spokesperson.
University officials plan to appoint an interim dean before the end of the current academic semester and, in the weeks ahead, will develop a search strategy for the college’s next permanent dean, according to Dorrington.
Dean positions in Marquette’s College of Business Administration and Opus College of Engineering are also currently vacant. University officials are in the process of evaluating selected finalists.
Last month, four finalists in the College of Business Administration made their first public presentations to the Marquette community. Those finalists are: Kevin Stevens, D.B.A., a professor and director of the School of Accountancy and MIS at DePaul University; Noreen Sharpe, Ph.D., senior associate dean and director of undergraduate programs for the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University; Eric Morse, Ph.D., a professor of entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada; and Brian Till, Ph.D., dean of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University.
University officials are currently vetting campus feedback on each candidate’s presentation.
Three finalists for the dean position in the College of Engineering will make public presentations on campus on Tuesday, April 14. Finalists are: Kristina Ropella, Ph.D., interim Opus Dean of the Opus College of Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering; K.Y. Simon Ng, Ph.D., associate dean for research and graduate studies, and professor of chemical engineering and materials science at Wayne State University; and Charles Fleddermann, Ph.D., the Gardner-Zemke Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and associate dean of the School of Engineering at the University of New Mexico.
