Dr. Earl William Fleck
Dr. Earl William Fleck
SHREVEPORT, LA -- Dr. Earl William Fleck of Walla Walla, Wash., will join the administrative staff of Centenary College of Louisiana on July 1 as the college's new provost and dean of the college, Centenary President Kenneth L. Schwab has announced.
Fleck is currently Spencer F. Baird Professor of Biology and chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Whitman College in Walla Walla. Prior to joining Whitman in 1974, he was an assistant professor at Southern Oregon State College and a U.S. Navy veteran of Vietnam.
"We are pleased that Earl Fleck will be joining the Centenary family," said President Kenneth L. Schwab. "His appointment came after an extensive search for the academic leader who would be right for Centenary at just this point in our history. He is a gifted teacher with an outstanding record of scholarship and leadership in higher education. I am delighted with his selection and look forward to the many positive contributions he will make to our college community."
Fleck, 53, earned the B.A. degree in chemistry and zoology from San Diego State University (1969) and the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara (1971 and 1973). His teaching areas include molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, biological principles, evolution, genetic engineering and ethics, the recombinant DNA controversy and classical Greece for the undergraduate core curriculum. His research interests include biology of mutation induction, radiation damage of DNA and radiobiology.
In 1978, he received a three-year honor appointment as a Paul Garrett Fellow at Whitman, in recognition of "younger Whitman College faculty of demonstrated distinction, on the basis of criteria that include scholarly qualifications and a high degree of demonstrated competence in teaching. In 1997, he was named to the Spencer F. Baird endowed chair in science in recognition of excellence in teaching and research.
Among his administrative experience has been the chairmanship of Whitman's Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics since 1997 as well as serving as chair of the Department of Biology from 1982-85 and 1994-97, as radiation safety officer since 1993 and as program director of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant since 1995. He is a member of the Editorial Board, Introductory Biology of The Biology Place, a worldwide web-based education site.
Fleck has been the principal investigator or project director of several grants and is the author or co-author of numerous journal articles and three book chapters. He served with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam from 1966-68 and is a former member of the U.S. Naval Reserve and the U.S. Army Reserve.
Fleck assumes the position being vacated by Dr. Robert P. Bareikis, who served for six and a half years and who resigned the post effective Jan. 1. After a semester of administrative leave, Dr. Bareikis will return to the campus as the Arthur and Emily Webb Professor of International Studies.
During the spring semester, Fleck will spend four weeks on campus before officially assuming the duties of the office on July 1. During the interim, Dr. Lee Morgan, professor emeritus, will return from retirement to serve as interim dean.
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