Promotion and Tenure at UMKC

This year we had an outstanding group of faculty members who were tenured and/or promoted. All of these individuals have had to meet very high standards of performance in teaching and scholarship and have demonstrated excellence and sustained achievements in their fields. I am very pleased with the outcome of this year’s review and proud to be a part of a university with such outstanding scholars and educators.

The promotion of faculty members and the granting of tenure are among the most important decisions made by universities. These serious decisions involve careful scrutiny of faculty performance by faculty committees, administrators, and scholars outside of the university. For new assistant professors on tenure-track appointments, the process of achieving tenure is a long one and usually involves a five-year period of teaching, scholarship, publishing, and service to the university before the tenure review process formally begins. In addition to annual reviews of performance, a departmental and/or school committee of senior faculty members will review the performance of assistant professors in their fifth year and make a recommendation on promotion and tenure. The recommendation of the committee or committees will be considered by the dean of the school/college who will conduct his or her own assessment and make a recommendation on the candidate. Additional reviews are conducted by a campus-wide committee and the Provost who will advise the Chancellor, who makes the final decision. This decision is usually conveyed to the candidate in the sixth year of the assistant professor’s appointment at the university. Faculty members who join the university as tenure-track associate or full professors are subject to the same scrutiny, although the probationary periods are shorter.

-Written by Ron MacQuarrie, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies

Listed below are the names and titles of the tenured and promoted faculty for 2008:

College of Arts & Sciences

Barry Anderson, Tenure –Associate Professor
Peter Elijah Gowin, Tenure –Associate Professor
Jon David VanHorn, Tenure –Associate Professor
Jeffrey Rydberg-Cox, Promotion to Professor
Caroline (“Molly”) Davies, Tenure-Associate Professor
Tina Niemi, Promotion to Professor
Jie Chen, Promotion to Professor
James Sheppard, Tenure-Associate Professor
Clancy Martin, Tenure –Associate Professor

Biological Sciences

Michael Bryan Ferrari, Tenure-Associate Professor
John Laity, Tenure-Associate Professor
Michael O’Connor, Tenure-Associate Professor
Xiao-Qiang Yu, Tenure-Associate Professor
Sullivan Read, Promotion to Professor

Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration

David E. Kuipers, Tenure-Associate Professor

Conservatory of Music & Dance

Keith Benjamin, Promotion to Professor
Chieh-Chi (Scott) Lee, Tenure- Associate Professor
Joseph Parisi, Tenure-Associate Professor
James Snell, Tenure-Associate Professor

School of Dentistry

Reem N. Haj-Ali, Tenure-Associate Professor
Tanya Villalpando Mitchell, Tenure-Associate Professor
Pamela Overman, Promotion - Professor
Mary Walker, Promotion - Professor
Yong Wang, Tenure -(at Assoc. Professor (– no promotion)
Craig Whitt, Tenure (at Assoc. Professor ( -no promotion)

School of Education

Chrisanthia (Chris) Brown, Promotion - Professor

School of Nursing

Jennifer Lynn Hunter, Tenure – Associate Professor

University Libraries

Amitra Burdick, Promotion to Librarian IV
Diane Hunter, Promotion to Librarian III
Phil Johnson, Promotion to Librarian II
Buddy Pennington, Promotion to Librarian II
Wendy Sistrunk, Promotion to Librarian III

School of Computing and Engineering

Deendayal Dinakarpandian,Tenure-Associate Professor
Ganesh Thiagarajan, Tenure-Associate Professor