Westfield College president named chancellor at Tri-Cities

June 14, 2006

By Communications staff, Washington State University

TRI-CITIES – , the president of Westfield (Mass.) State College,Vicky L. Carwein has been named the new chancellor of Washington State University Tri-Cities.

“I am very excited about Vicky Carwein joining the WSU team,” said WSU President V. Lane Rawlins. “Her leadership in the Tri-Cities will help us set a path for the future, with that campus as a great community asset and a major part of one of the nation’s leading research universities. We are very fortunate to have located a person with her skills, background and energy.”

Carwein became Westfield State College’s first woman president in June 2004. She previously served as the first permanent head of the University of Washington, Tacoma (UWT).

“I am very excited about this opportunity,” Carwein said. “With the recent groundbreaking of the joint research facility with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the move to four-year status for the campus, there is tremendous positive momentum at WSU Tri-Cities. I am looking forward to moving back to the Pacific Northwest and being part of that progress.”

“Carwein is a perfect fit for WSU Tri-Cities,” said WSU Vancouver Chancellor Hal Dengerink, who co-chaired the search committee. “She has a long history of building strategic university-community partnerships, skills that we very much need in our new chancellor.

“I worked with Vicky for several years while she was chancellor for UW Tacoma and found her to be a phenomenal colleague whom I believe will help us lift the WSU multi-campus system to the next level,” he said.

Dengerink and Paul Rosier, superintendent of the Kennewick School District, headed the search committee which recommended the selection of Carwein to Rawlins. The committee included 16 additional members, including community representatives and members of the WSU Tri-Cities faculty, staff and student body.

At Westfield State, Carwein has focused on enhancing the teaching and learning experience for students and faculty college-wide. She has instituted several initiatives for faculty development and institutional transformation, including grants programs that provide increased opportunities for research and scholarship. Under her administration, the Center for Teacher Education and Research has expanded and the Institute for Homeland Security was established.

Fall 2005 enrollment at the college, which is located in Westfield, Mass., was 5,345 students, 4,191 full-time.

When Carwein arrived at UWT in 1995, the campus was housed in leased space and had 732 students in four academic programs. When she left in 2004, UWT served more than 2,100 students with seven academic programs, including an Institute of Technology and a named business school.

Before joining UWT, Carwein was dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She holds both a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Nursing Science degree from Indiana University and a master’s degree from the University of California, San Francisco. She has published and presented dozens of papers on both health and administrative issues, from examining the impact of HIV, to education’s role in economic development. She was born and raised in Gwynneville, Indiana.

Her husband, Bill Andrews, is strategic projects division market manager for Battelle Memorial Institute headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Carwein will succeed David Lemak, who has served as interim chancellor for the campus since August 2005. Lemak, then a professor of management and director of business programs at WSU Tri-Cities, took over when Chancellor Larry James was named associate executive vice president for the Pullman campus. Carwein’s exact starting date has not been set, but it is expected to be between Sept. 1 and Oct. 1.

Carwein will be visiting the Tri-Cities next week to meet with faculty, staff and students, community members and members of the media. The timetable for that visit will be announced when details are confirmed.