Interim Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ellen Weissinger has emerged as a finalist for the SVCAA position, the search committee announced today. Weissinger will have a formal interview process Feb. 2-4, with a public presentation 3:30 p.m. Feb. 2 at Sheldon Museum of Art.
Below is a memo from the search committee:
"Dear Colleagues:
Earlier this month, Chancellor Perlman issued an update on the search for a new Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The process, through December, surfaced four candidates who were interviewed on campus. After careful consideration and a review of evaluations from across the campus community, Chancellor Perlman decided that while each of the four had strengths and was capable of filling the position, none of them was the right "fit" for what we needed at UNL at this time. The search remained open and our committee continued its work, using the same process for all candidates.
As part of the process, Dr. Ellen Weissinger has emerged as a viable candidate following a preliminary interview with the search committee. It is the search committee's unanimous recommendation that an on-campus interview with Dr. Weissinger be arranged, and that the interview process for this candidate be conducted in the same manner as was the case for all previous candidates.
We have been able to set up times for campus groups to meet with, and interview, Dr. Weissinger on Feb. 2, 3 and 4. A public presentation by Dr. Weissinger is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 2 in the Sheldon Auditorium. The presentation will be followed by a public reception. Dr. Weissinger's curriculum vita is posted on the search website for your convenience: http://svcaasearch.unl.edu.
I hope you will take the opportunity to attend one of the sessions and to provide the committee with your feedback on this candidate for this important leadership position for our university."
- Marjorie Kostelnik, Search Committee Chair
On behalf of the Sr. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Search Committee
Weissinger was appointed interim Senior Vice Chancellor of UNL Dec. 21, 2009, and previously served as the Dean of Graduate Studies. She is a tenured full professor of educational psychology with expertise in quantitative research methodology. A Nebraska native, Weissinger earned her undergraduate degree from UNL in 1980. She completed her Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1982 and a doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1985. She taught at the University of Iowa for one year before joining the UNL faculty in 1986. She was promoted to associate professor in 1992 and full professor in 1999.
Weissinger's academic interest is the interdisciplinary area of leisure studies. She published more than 40 research articles with a special focus on intrinsic motivation and boredom. She also specialized in psychometric work and has published three measurement instruments. From 1996-2001 she served as editor of the Journal of Leisure Research. At UNL, she taught research methods courses in the College of Education and Human Sciences, including foundations of educational research, survey methods, experimental methods, and evaluation theory.
She has been the principal investigator or co-principle investigator for U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation grants totaling $1 million. She is the Director of the Great Plains National Security Education Consortium, a five-year, $3 million project funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She sits on the advisory board of the National Graduate and Professional Student Association and on the Council of Graduate Schools Research Task Force. Weissinger previously served as associate dean of Teachers College at UNL and associate director of the Buros Institute for Mental Measurement.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/cz8