In the search for a new dean of the College of Education, UCCS hosted three candidate finalists for the position.
The three finalists were hosted during the week of April 7 via public forum. The dean position was posted on Feb. 14, 2024. One of the finalists, Joseph Wehrman is serving as the interim dean of the college of education (COE) until the position is filled. According to CU Careers, the salary range is between $145,000-$210,000 annually.
The search committee tasked with choosing the dean is made of faculty from departments across campus, with Co-Chairs Minette Church, associate dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Tabatha Farney, associate dean of the Kraemer Family Library.
Joseph Wehrman
Wehrman was hosted on Monday, April 7, by the search committee.
Wehrman is serving as the interim dean of COE. He has been a professor of counseling and human services at UCCS since 2007. He has won UCCS’ COE Outstanding Teaching Award, COE’s Technology Award, COE’s Outstanding Service Award and the Chancellor’s Award for overall excellence in areas such as teaching, research and service.
“We’ve lost faith in institutions, and we’ve lost faith in leadership … One of the areas that I think has taken the biggest hit is higher education, followed by K12 education, and we are questioning how these systems work and what they need,” Wehrman said. “I think I view myself as a principal-based leader, somebody that looks at what our core mission and core values are, what we prioritize and how we view ourselves.”
Prior to his employment at UCCS, Wehrman did humanitarian work, such as aiding victims of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka and victims of Hurricane Katrina with the American Red Cross Disaster and Mental Health team.
As the Dean of COE, Wehrman said he hopes to open more doors for the university, such as increasing opportunities for concurrent and dual enrollment.
Cynthia Chambers
Chambers was hosted on Wednesday, April 9, by the search committee.
Chambers is a professor of special education and serves as the associate dean of academics and educator preparation at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). She has won ETSU’s Distinguished Faculty in Service award and the Harold Love Outstanding Community Involvement Award for the programs she has created for people with disabilities.
Chambers emphasized the importance of transparency in budget conversations, saying that understanding budget cuts is essential to increasing enrollment and increasing grant funding from donors. If selected as the COE’s dean, her plan for her first year is to assess and navigate federal budget cuts.
“Year one is about investigating, but while moving fast, because we’ve got to move fast with the way that higher education is rolling right now. With the budget cuts at the state as well as the federal level, we have to think innovatively, and we have to have timelines for getting things approved through systems,” Chambers said.
Alonzo Flowers
Flowers was hosted on Thursday, April 10, by the search committee.
Flowers has served as a professor and department chair of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio since 2024. Prior to this position, he served as the associate dean of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in the graduate college at Drexel University for four years. In 2022, he was awarded Drexel’s Teaching Excellence Award for tenured faculty.
Flowers said the biggest issue that higher education is facing right now is the political and social landscape of education on a federal level. These political challenges, specifically regarding curriculum, funding, transparency and honesty, threaten higher education institutions nationwide, according to Flowers.
“We have a deficit in teacher education because of the hyper-political things that are happening,” Flowers said. “When undergraduate teacher education takes a hit, we all take a hit.”
The search team is collecting feedback on the three finalists.
Feedback for all three candidates is due April 15 by 5 p.m.
The Mountain Lion statue. Photo by Lillian Davis.