News & Events - School of Public Affairs and Environmental Sciences, IU Bloomington

SPEA Dean Finalists Announced

Four finalists have been selected for the position of dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University and will meet with faculty, staff, students and campus officials in Bloomington and Indianapolis starting next week.

The finalists are:

John Applegate, the Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law at the Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington and a Presidential Fellow at the IU president’s office.
John Graham, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, Calif.
Barbara S. Romzek, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas.
Greg Lindsey, associate dean of SPEA and the Duey-Murphy Professor of Rural Land Policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

“We are delighted to be able to attract such an interesting and talented group of people to consider this wonderful opportunity at SPEA,” said Lauren Robel, dean of the IU School of Law-Bloomington and chair of the SPEA dean search committee.

IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz appointed a 15-member search committee in August 2007 to identify and interview candidates for the position. The dean of SPEA reports to the chancellor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

The previous dean, Astrid E. Merget, left last summer to become provost and executive vice president of Louisiana State University. Kurt Zorn, a SPEA professor and associate dean at IU Bloomington, serves as interim dean.

Campus visits and meetings are scheduled on the following dates: Romzek on Jan. 22-23, Lindsey on Jan. 30-31, Applegate on Feb. 4-5 and Graham on Feb. 11-12.

Applegate, who joined the IU law faculty in 1998, is nationally recognized for his work in environmental risk assessment and policy analysis and is a frequent speaker at national conferences. More information is available at http://law.indiana.edu/directory/jsapple.asp.

Graham has been dean since March 2006 of PRGS, a graduate school established in 1970 by the RAND Corp. think tank. A former professor in the Harvard School of Public Health, he was an administrator in the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2001-06. More information is available at http://www.prgs.edu/dean.html.

Lindsey joined the SPEA faculty in 1991 and has been associate dean for Indianapolis programs since January 2004. Known for his research on greenways and urban trails, he has been a scholar with the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment. More information is available at http://www.spea.iupui.edu/faculty/greglindsey/.

Romzek served as interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2005-06 at the University of Kansas, where she is professor of public policy. She became associate dean for social sciences in 2000. She has published extensively on accountability in the public sector and other topics. More information is available at http://www.clas.ku.edu/faculty/deansoffice/barbara.shtml.

About the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs

The IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) is committed to teaching, research and service in areas such as public and nonprofit management, public policy, environmental science, criminal justice, arts administration and health administration. The school maintains continuing relationships with a large number of public agencies at all levels of government; public and private hospitals and health organizations; and nonprofit organizations and corporations in the private sector. SPEA has earned national distinction for innovative educational programs that combine administrative, social, economic, financial and environmental disciplines.