Mitchell Whaley, dean of Ball State's College of Health, will be stepping down from the position at the end of the summer 2020 semester, according to an email sent out by Provost and Executive Vice President for Student Affairs Susana Rivera-Mills.
Whaley became dean of the College of Applied Sciences and Technology (CAST) in 2008, overseeing the departments of Family and Consumer Sciences, Military Science, and Technology and the schools of Nursing and Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science, Rivera-Mills said.
In early 2015, along with Provost Emeritus Terry King, he started the faculty and units on the path to the creation of the College of Health, she said.
"Mitch not only worked diligently to gather data and resources to support the creation of COH, he began working on the culture of excellence for which the college has quickly become known," Rivera-Mills said.
He brought together the School of Nursing, departments of Military Science and Nutrition, and the School of Kinesiology from CAST, with the departments of Health Science, Speech Pathology and Audiology, and Social Work from the College of Sciences and Humanities, and Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling from Teachers College, she said.
Whaley was named founding dean of the College of Health in July 2016 and began work on the plans for the recently opened Health Professions Building.
"He is the first to say the creation of the college and the construction and move to a new building was a team effort, but that these accomplishments were swift and seamless was in no small way Mitch’s work," Rivera-Mills said.
Whaley will be returning to teaching classes in the fall 2020 semester.
"I am grateful to Mitch for his dedication to his students, faculty, and staff, and I appreciate the leadership he has shown for the college and Ball State University," Rivera-Mills said. "All of us wish him the very best, and we look forward to hearing about his new classes."
She said an interim dean will be appointed in the next few weeks and Ball State will launch a national search for a new dean in the fall.
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