Colgate University administrator Douglas Hicks has been appointed dean of Oxford College of Emory University.
He replaces outgoing dean Stephen Bowen, who is retiring at the end of the school year. Bowen had been dean at Oxford since 2005, and has a career in academia spanning almost four decades.
Hicks will assume the university’s top position on July 15. At Colgate, he had served as provost and dean of the faculty, and is currently senior adviser for academic initiatives and professor of religion.
Oxford’s foundation in the liberal arts was a draw for him, Hicks said in a statement from the university released Monday. “Through an intensive two-year experience, Oxford fosters students’ critical thinking and intellectual curiosity, preparing them to flourish in the rest of their time at Emory and their lives beyond.”
Oxford College is located on Emory’s original 1836 campus in Oxford, Georgia. The two-year residential college emphasizes a liberal arts education. Most Oxford students continue their undergraduate education at Emory’s main campus in Atlanta usually in the colleges of arts and sciences, business and nursing.
Hicks was selected for the position through a national search conducted for Emory by the firm Heidrick and Struggles.
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