PULLMAN — Douglas Epperson, one of the three finalists for the position of dean of the College of Liberal Arts, is returning Dec. 11-12 to WSU for a second visit, according to Warwick M. Bayly, provost and executive vice president.An associate dean and professor in psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University, Epperson was here previously on Oct. 29-30. On this upcoming visit, he will meet with college leaders, interact with the faculty and staff, and meet with Provost Bayly.
Epperson’s administrative experience at Iowa State includes serving as associate dean since 2003, as the interim chair for the Department of Psychology from 1996-99 and as that department’s associate chair on two different occasions. He also served the department as director of graduate education from 1988-2003.
He was also the interim director of the Office of Pre-collegiate Programs for Talented and Gifted on the Iowa State campus and the director of the counseling psychology program, which was recently ranked first in the nation among university counseling psychology programs in regards to research productivity.
His primary research focuses on issues related to the reliable and accurate assessment of the risk of future offenses by sex offenders. He is the lead author of the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised (MnSOST-R), one of the three most commonly used actuarial risk-assessment tools. He also developed a similar tool for juvenile sexual offenders (JSORRAT-II). He continues to do limited research in the area of women in science and engineering.
Epperson received his Ph.D. in psychology from The Ohio State University in 1979. He earned his master’s degree in educational psychology with a specialization in rehabilitation counseling in 1976 and his bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1973, both from the University of Utah.
WSU’s dean of liberal arts position came open Aug. 16 whenthe previous dean, Erich Lear, returned to the faculty. Since then, Paul Whitney, associate dean and professor of psychology, has served as interim dean.
