LSSU selects Rodney L. Lowman Ph.D. as presidentPosted: September 15th, 2007SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – Lake Superior State University has selected Rodney L. Lowman Ph.D. of Alliant International University as its sixth president.
He is scheduled to start work in early October, soon after LSSU's fall semester begins.
Lowman is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Alliant, a private university of about 4,000 students. He has been with Alliant for nine years, including several months' service as Acting President in 2004. Prior to becoming Provost, he was dean and professor in Alliant's California School of Organizational Studies (now Marshall Goldsmith School of Management), with programs offering advanced degrees in Industrial-Organizational psychology, Clinical/Organizational psychology, Organization Development, Consulting psychology and Organizational Behavior. He also has served as Director of Alliant's Organizational Consulting Center, a university-based consulting firm.
One of three finalists brought to Sault Ste. Marie and the LSSU campus by the LSSU Board of Trustees and its Presidential Search Committee, Lowman will step in to the president's office behind Betty J. Youngblood Ph.D., who announced her intent to retire last spring after five years at LSSU's helm. Youngblood, a Michigan native, also came to LSSU from the West Coast, having been president of Western Oregon University Monmouth, Oregon, for seven years.
"I am tremendously pleased that Dr. Lowman is coming to Lake Superior State University and the Sault Ste. Marie community," said Barbara Cliff, chair of the LSSU Board of Trustees and member of the search committee. "The responses from those who met him when he visited campus – faculty, staff, students and community members – were overwhelmingly positive. He brings a great deal of experience to LSSU and he communicates it with strength and optimism. The Board is looking forward to working with him."
Cliff commended the search committee for coming up with three excellent candidates as finalists.
"This was a big task, but the members of the committee did a wonderful job of working together and efficiently to choose candidates who were not only experienced, but would be a good fit with the university and the community. I am grateful to all of the members who took the time to help with this important event in the university's history."
LSSU Trustee Chuck Schmidt, acting chair of the search committee, also said he was pleased with how smoothly the search was handled and how everyone worked together to find the best candidates for the job.
"It was a great experience for me to be working on the committee with members of the LSSU and Sault Ste. Marie communities," Schmidt said. "Everyone did a tremendous job and we are all quite pleased with the outcome. We're all looking forward to officially welcoming Dr. Lowman to campus."
"I'm delighted to be joining Lake State and am excited about the opportunities ahead," Lowman said.
When he met with campus constituents earlier in the month, Lowman said he enjoys bringing people together to work toward common goals. He indicated that this was particularly important in addressing LSSU's enrollment and retention needs and to help make the institution’s considerable strengths more visible.
"You can try a lot of things to bring in more students, but they should be focused, with a strategic vision in mind" Lowman said.
"LSSU has a number of strengths, including people who are passionate about education and who care about the students," he said, adding that he was impressed also with the University's faculty/student experiences and the equipment that undergraduate students have available to them in laboratories. He stated that he "hopes to help the institution become better known in the state and region, as well as nationally and internationally, for its fine work in providing quality academic programs in a caring, safe and supportive environment."
Lowman also said his experience at Alliant would be helpful as he takes the LSSU presidency. During the nine years he was with the university, he said it went through a major reorganization, two name changes, a merger with another university and the need to transition its finances and accreditation.
"We also had to struggle with identity issues," he said, "but have been able to chart directions that have been exciting to the entire institution."
All the while, the institution opened international branches and increased its enrollment to approximately 4,000 students this fall, slightly larger than LSSU.
Lowman was born in Oklahoma, where his father served in the US Air Force. His mother was born in Central America and raised in Honduras, Guatemala and New Orleans. He has called several parts of the country home while his father served with the military as a pilot, wing commander and senior administrator.
Both Dr. and Mrs. Lowman toured campus in early August, when he spoke with students, faculty, staff and members of the community. When asked about the move to a part of the country that has winters somewhat colder than southern California, Lowman said he graduated from high school in Plattsburgh, New York, and formerly lived in Newfoundland, Canada. He also said his wife, Linda Richardson Lowman, is a native of southern New Hampshire, and that they are both familiar with snow and cold weather.
"In our last several locations, both in California and the South," Lowman remarked, "we have somehow never thrown out our snow shovel from Michigan. Now I know why we were saving it!"
Dr. and Mrs. Lowman are both trained psychologists. Linda, who also trained as a psychiatric nurse, has specialized in the mental health needs of incarcerated populations and is an expert in working with the seriously mentally ill. Their daughter, a graduate from Johns Hopkins University, was a Fulbright Fellow in Berlin, Germany, before working for the Teach for America organization in New York. Currently, she is spending a year teaching in a small community in Honduras.
Lowman is a Fellow in the Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, the Society of Clinical Psychology and the Society of Consulting Psychology, and has won numerous awards. He is widely published in the professional literature and is well known for his work on ethics, career assessment and counseling and occupational mental health. His professional experience includes service as department head and professor of psychology, leading a successful organizational consulting business and heading up occupational mental health programs at a major private university. Early in his professional career, Lowman was a faculty member at the Institute for Social Research and Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan.
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Widely published, Lowman has authored or edited nine books and monographs, has edited two professional journals, published over 100 articles and book chapters, and has made hundreds of juried professional presentations all over the world. Currently, he heads the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee for the CEO of the American Psychological Association, a 145,000-member association. He is past president of the Society of Psychologists in Management and the Society of Consulting Psychology.
Lowman holds a doctorate in psychology with specializations in Industrial-Organizational and Clinical Psychology, as well as a master's degree in psychology, both from Michigan State University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts with High Honors in psychology from University of Oklahoma and a bachelor's degree in business from Oklahoma State University. He also completed an APA-approved Clinical Psychology internship at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, formerly the APA-approved Texas Research Institute of Mental Sciences. -LSSU-
A folder of print-quality photos of Dr. Rodney Lowman can be found by clicking here.
CONTACT: Tom Pink, 906-635-2315; Bill Crawford, 635-2335; John Shibley 635-2314
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