The Presidential Search Committee met April 21, per the schedule established in their April 10 meeting, finalized the list of candidates that will be interviewed for the job of LSU’s president.
Out of the 23 applicants presented to the committee, eight were chosen to move forward to the interview stage.
Following is the list of candidates who were up for consideration:
- Laurence Alexander, J.D., Ph.D. Professor and Chancellor University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
- James Anderson, Ph.D. Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense U.S. Department of Defense
- David Blackwell, Ph.D. Professor and Outgoing Provost, University of Kentucky
- Rita Cheng, Ph.D. Outgoing President Northern Arizona University
- Ronald (Ron) Clark, M.A. Major General & Chief of Staff United States Indo-Pacific Command, Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii United States Army
- Jay Dardenne, J.D. Commissioner Division of Administration State of Louisiana
- Wenbin Deng, Ph.D. Professor and Founding Dean School of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Sun Yat-sen University
- Charalabos (Haris) Doumanidis, Ph.D. Deputy Provost University College Dublin
- Kelvin Droegemeier, Ph.D. Former Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, United States Federal Government
- Daniel Fogel, Ph.D Professor and Former Chair English University of Vermont
- Leroy Hamilton, Jr., Ed.D. Special Assistant to the President Norfolk State University
- James (Jim) Henderson, D.M. System President and Chief Executive Officer
- Larry (Chip) Hunter, Ph.D. Professor and Dean Carson College of Business Washington State University
- Alexander Lowry, M.B.A. Executive Director, Career and Connection Institute Gordon College
- Christopher (Chris) Lynch, Ph.D. Professor and Dean Bourns College of Engineering University of California, Riverside
- Rustin M. Moore, DVM, Ph.D. Professor and Dean College of Veterinary Medicine The Ohio State University William
- (Bill) Payne, Ph.D. Professor and Dean College of Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources University of Nevada
- Magesh Rajan, Ph.D. Vice President for Research and Innovation Prairie View A&M University
- Mary Ann Rankin, Ph.D. Professor and Former Senior Vice President and Provost (2021) University of Maryland, College Park
- Lt. Gen. (Ret) Jeffrey (Jeff) Talley, Ph.D. President & CEO The P3i Group, LLC
- Margaret Waid, Ph.D. President The Waid Group, Inc.
- Andre-Denis Wright, Ph.D. Endowed Dean College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences Washington State University
- Amar Zireg, B.A. General Manager Goldor
Based off of this list, the committee went on to discuss who they would like to bring in for interview. The follow candidates will advance to the interview stage:
- Rustin Moore
- Laurence Alexander
- Jay Dardenne
- Mary Ann Rankin
- Kelvin Droegemeier
- Jeff Talley
- Ron Clark
- Jim Henderson
The interviews conducted by the committee will be public and available to stream online, although parts of the meetings may be moved to executive session, which would remain private in order to protect the candidates’ personal information. The committee will meet in person, but the candidates and search firm will join via Zoom.
“There will be uniformity to those interviews,” Parker Executive Search President Laurie Wilder.
The committee will hold interviews on April 26 and 27, conducting four interviews each day. Each meeting will be an hour and 15 minutes, with 15 minute interviews between.
At the beginning of the meeting, the committee adopted a motion to accept applications that were submitted after the formal interested period ended on April 19. The list of 23 candidates could increase after the other applications are considered.
“I am not going to be a part of nor will I allow this committee to be a part of any side show or anything that is not consistent with public meeting laws and what the law says about picking our next president,” Chair James Williams said in reference to rumors that have spread in the LSU community.
