As the search for a Provost continues, Bradley is hosting several open forums during the next two weeks so students can meet the candidates and ask them questions.
A large number of students, faculty, parents and alumni attended the first open forum, and many said they planned on returning to forums later on.
There are three candidates for Provost.
The first candidate, Michael Gealt, is the Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, and a professor of biology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He received his B.A. in biology from Temple University in Pennsylvania and later went to Rutgers University in New Jersey and earned his Ph.D, in microbiology.
Gealt has also held teaching positions at Drexel University in Pennsylvania in the Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and spent several years at Purdue University Calumet in Indiana where he was a professor in the Department of Biology and later became the Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for several months.
Gealt has been awarded several honors, including being elected Chair for the Arkansas STEM Coalition in 2009 and was elected as Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology.
Gealt’s open Provost forums were on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The second candidate, Conrado “Bobby” Gempesaw II, is a Dean of the Lerner College of Business and Economics, and a professor of economics at the University of Delaware in Newark. He earned his B.A. in economics from the Ateneo de Davao University in the Philippines, and later earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Pennsylvania State University.
Gempesaw has held faculty positions at the University of Delaware in the Department of Economics and the Department of Food and Resource Economics, and was a visiting professor in Poznan, Poland for a Polish-American summer school program in economics several years ago.
He has also received several honors and awards, including becoming a Senior Fellow in the School of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University in 2009, and earning an Outstanding Alumni Award he was given by the College of Agricultural Sciences at Pennsylvania State University in 2008.
One of Gempesaw’s forums was Thursday and the other is today.
The third candidate, Dr. Larry A. Nielsen, is a professor of natural resources in the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University. He earned his B.S. in honors biology from the University of Illinois, and earned his Ph.D. in fisheries biology at Cornell University.
He previously held the position of Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at North Carolina State University from 2005 to 2009, and also was the Dean of the College of Natural Resources.
Nielsen has been member of several honorary societies, including Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Gamma Sigma Delta, and has won several awards, including becoming elected Fellow at the American Institute of Fisheries Research Biologists.
Nielsen’s open Provost forums are Monday from 3 to 4:15 p.m. and Tuesday from 10:20 a.m. to noon in the Marty Theater.
