Roll to head academic affairs, research at WSU Spokane

SPOKANE, WASH. – John Roll, an accomplished researcher and administrator, will assume a new role as Washington State University Spokane’s senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and research effective July 1.

 

His primary responsibility will be to assist WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown with leadership of the growing Spokane campus, WSU’s designated health sciences campus. He will head planning and implementation of strategic initiatives; maintain collaborations with other higher education and health care institutions and organizations; and lead WSU Spokane’s research operations and library, among other duties.

 

“John is the right person to lead the next phase of WSU Spokane’s academic development,” said Brown. “His broad experience makes him well suited to leading our efforts to provide unique interprofessional education, practice and research opportunities for our students, as well as navigating the complexities of running a multi-institutional campus.”

 

Roll is associate vice provost for graduate education and scholarship for WSU Health Sciences and associate dean for faculty affairs in the WSU College of Nursing. He is a tenured professor in the college – a rank he will retain as part of his new appointment – and will continue to serve as director of the WSU Program of Excellence in Addiction Research.

 

“It is a pleasure to continue my association with WSU in this new role,” said Roll. “I look forward to working closely with Chancellor Brown and leaders of other educational institutions in the region to insure that our students and our community receive the very highest quality service we can provide them.”

 

Since joining WSU Spokane in 2004, Roll has held several academic leadership roles and built a highly successful research program that has drawn funding from industry, state and federal sources. His team’s research has focused on human behavioral pharmacology and the development of behavioral interventions for addiction and other psychiatric disorders.

In addition to his primary appointment at the WSU College of Nursing, Roll has appointments in the WSU departments of Health Policy and Administration, Neuroscience and Psychology and at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
 
Roll was appointed by former governor Christine Gregoire as a member of the Eastern State Hospital Advisory Board and as a vice chair of the Governor’s Council on Substance Abuse. He has served as president of the American Psychological Association’s Division on Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse and is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Behavior Analysis International and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

 

Roll earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from WSU in 1994. He completed postdoctoral fellowships in behavioral pharmacology at the University of Vermont and substance abuse treatment at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Before returning to WSU, he served on the faculty at Wayne State University and the University of California at Los Angeles.

 

 

WSU Spokane is Washington State University’s urban health sciences campus. Located on the Riverpoint Campus near downtown Spokane, WSU Spokane prepares the state’s future generations of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals and houses world-class research that leads to healthier people and communities. Learn more about WSU’s growing health sciences campus at http://www.spokane.wsu.edu.

 

 

Contacts:
John Roll, 509-358-7837, johnroll@wsu.edu 
Judith Van Dongen, WSU Spokane/WSU News, 509-358-7524, jcvd@wsu.edu