Mississippi State has narrowed the national search for the university’s Vice President of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine down to three candidates.
The top candidates selected by the search committee are:
– Greg Bohach, Director of the Idaho Experiment Station and Associate Dean of the College of Ag and Life Sciences at the University of Idaho.
– Cameron Hackney, Dean of the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences and Director of the West Virginia Experiment Station at West Virginia University.
– Craig Nessler, Director of the Virginia Agriculture Experiment Station and Associate Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.
Search committee chairman Jerry Gilbert said the 17 applicants for the position were all from either the agriculture community or university setting and were all well qualified.
“[They were] one of the best pools overall that I’ve seen with a group,” he said. “All [were] viable candidates.”
The applicants were interviewed for about 45 minutes before the committee tightened the search to three individuals, Gilbert said.
“Last week, we had video conferences with a number of candidates. We then narrowed it down. We were in communication with a subset of that 17,” he said.
Interviews, meetings and open sessions with each individual candidate will begin June 9 and continue until June 24. Following the interview process, MSU President Mark Keenum will announce the final selection, which Gilbert said should be by early July.
The position was left vacant after Vance Watson was appointed interim MSU president in March, 2008, following the resignation of former MSU President Robert “Doc” Foglesong. Watson later resigned following allegations of misconduct and an investigation by the State Auditor.
Melissa Mixon currently serves as Interim Vice President of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine.
The MSU Web site includes links with information on the three candidates including curriculum vitae, letters of intent, statements of the candidates’ land grant vision and references. The candidate information can be viewed at agvpsearch.msstate.edu.
The Reflector will continue to provide updates on the vice presidential search.
Tomorrow: Search committee members discuss the qualities they looked for in selecting vice presidential candidates and the upcoming interview process.
Editor in Chief Carl Smith contributed to this report