PULLMAN, Wash. – William (Bill) Andrefsky Jr., professor, graduate coordinator and former chair of the Department of Anthropology, has been named the new dean of the Washington State University Graduate School. He will take up his post on April 1.“We were fortunate to have a very strong pool of candidates from whom to choose, and I thank them all for the interest and effort they displayed during the interview process,” said President Elson S. Floyd. “Bill will work well with all the academic units to ensure that we continue to grow our graduate programs and enrollments. He has a great commitment to graduate education and WSU, and will do an excellent job as the leader of the fine staff we have in the Graduate School.”
A WSU faculty member since 1990, Andrefsky will assume the post previously held on an interim basis by Herbert Eastlick Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biosciences Nancy Magnuson, who was named both interim graduate school dean and interim vice president of research for WSU in May. The position of WSU Vice President of Research is expected to be filled separately some time later this semester. The positions were split due to the amount of work associated with each.
Andrefsky served as director of the Center for Northwest Archeology at WSU 1999-2000 and as interim associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts for the same period. He served previously as director of WSU’s Museum of Anthropology, which is located in College Hall on the Pullman campus. He received both his doctoral and master’s degrees from Binghampton (N.Y.) University.
As an anthropologist, Andrefsky has focused his research on prehistoric hunter-gatherer organization, lithic technology and rise of sedentism, centering his most recent work on the contexts and situations that allow hunting and gathering populations to shift from simple foraging to a sedentary lifestyle. For the past 20 years, he has worked in the interior northwestern region of North America and has conducted field research in Alaska and Japan.