April 12, 2002
Contact: Robert Lowery (509-963-1487/fax 509-963-2301/e-mail: loweryr@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Following a nationwide search, five finalists for the position of Central Washington University vice president for business and financial affairs have been announced by Dr. Elizabeth M. Street, executive assistant to the president.
The finalists are:
- Richard E. Corona, CWU interim vice president, business and financial affairs;
- Richard C. Heck, Dartmouth College associate dean of the college for planning, management and research;
- Jay D. Kenton, Portland State University chief financial officer and associate vice president for finance and planning;
- Paul G. McFarland, most recently the chief financial officer at the University of Vermont;
- and, Stephen L. Ward, Centralia College vice president of finance and administration.
The five were selected from among a pool of nearly 100 applicants, screened by a 15-member university search committee comprised of faculty, staff, students and community members. The committee was co-chaired by Street and Mark Lundgren, office of budget planning and institutional research. Each finalist has been invited to Ellensburg and the university’s Lynnwood and SeaTac centers to visit with interested campus and community members.
The first visit, April 22-24, will be by McFarland, a university chief business and financial officer with 28 years of university and academic medical center experience. Prior to his service at the University of Vermont, from 1999 to 2001, he served as vice president for business and finance at the University of Akron, from 1996 to 1999; and vice president of finance at Loyola University of Chicago, from 1981 to1996.
He earned his bachelor of arts degree in mathematics from Vanderbilt University in 1964 and his master’s of business administration from the graduate business school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967.
Corona’s interviews will be held April 24-26. He has served in senior financial, contracting and facilities management positions at CWU for 17 years. Prior to that, he was a procurement and facilities development officer for Transamerica Corporation in Los Angeles for 15 years. His financial and administrative experience included real property acquisition and facilities development, in both the public and private sector.
Corona earned his bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of California, Riverside in 1966. He earned a master’s degree in organization development from CWU in 1991. He is also a 1997 graduate of the Stanford University Executive Leadership and Management Institute.
Ward is scheduled for April 29-May 1. For the past 17 years he has worked in a variety of higher education institutions, including eight years as vice president of finance and administration at Centralia College. Prior to that, he was assistant comptroller at Northern Arizona University and controller at University of Puget Sound. He also served with the auditing firm Knight, Vale & Gregory.
Ward received his associates of arts degree from Centralia College in 1977, his bachelor of arts degree in accounting and management from Saint Martin’s College in 1981, and his master’s in public administration from The Evergreen State College in 1996.
Kenton’s visit will be May 1-3. He began his career in higher education administration in 1983 at Eastern Oregon University as assistant director of business affairs/accounting coordinator. Following that he worked at Oregon Institute of Technology, as assistant director of business affairs, before arriving at Portland State University in 1988 to become its director of business affairs.
Kenton received a bachelor of science in business administration and a master’s degree in adult and higher education from Oregon State University. He earned his Ph.D. in public administration and policy, with an emphasis in college and university finance and a minor in organization change and development, at Portland State University.
Heck will be at Central May 5-7. As associate dean of the college at Dartmouth, he oversees finances and personnel for all 35 departments in student services and related auxiliaries. Before Dartmouth, Heck was the key fiscal officer for financial vice presidents at Colgate. As director of budgets, planning and research, he worked both with trustee and on-campus committees.
Heck was also Colgate’s planning liaison with the University of the State of New York for master planning, reporting and certification and served as Colgate’s director of administrative information systems and established the institutional research office.
He earned his AB degree from Cornell and his master of arts degree from Colgate.
A brief biography, curriculum vitae, photo of each candidate and campus itinerary is available on-line at www.cwu.edu/vpsearch/bfa.html.
The new CWU vice-president for business and financial affairs, who is expected to assume office July 1, replaces Abdul Nasser who left CWU to assume the role of vice president for finance and administrative services at Central Michigan University.
