Ellington

A year after its creation, the UW College of the Environment will have a permanent dean July 1.

Lisa Graumlich, the first-choice candidate, accepted the position publicly on Monday with a statement expressing her excitement to work with the University to generate knowledge and help discover solutions to environmental challenges.

Graumlich is currently the director of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona and received her doctorate from the UW in 1985.

She is scheduled to take office July 1, almost two years after the University of Washington’s Board of Regent’s initial approval to go ahead with the creation of the College of the Environment.

The process to find a dean began with a hired search team to find the best candidates, and then the committee interviewed about a dozen applicants before narrowing it down to three.

Dennis Hartmann, the interim dean of the College of the Environment, said the three finalists spoke on campus at public seminars starting in April.

The director of the School of Forest Resources has also been temporary, and the search for his replacement will begin with Graumlich’s hiring. Bob Edmonds, a professor in the School of Forest Resources, said the hunt for a director was on hold until the dean of the College of the Environment was found, to allow for the dean’s input in the search.

As the interim director of the UW Water Center himself, Edmonds said that the tendency for interim administrators is to put off major decisions until a permanent administrator is hired.

In an article published in the online Encyclopedia of Earth, Graumlich said that our world is, “heavily contingent on the past; we cannot fully appreciate the present condition without going back decades, centuries or even millennia.” She warns, “if we continue to operate in ignorance or denial of this integrated historical understanding, we run the very real risk of mirroring the paths of the Easter Islanders, the Classic Maya or the Roman Empire.”

With the dean of the School of Public Health stepping down in September, the current search for a new dean of the College of Education and President Mark Emmert heading to the NCAA, Graumlich won’t be the only new UW administrator hired in coming months.

Reach contributing writer Laurel Christensen at development@dailyuw.com.