Following a national search, Mount St. Mary’s University has hired Boyd Creasman, Ph.D., as provost, effective in January 2018. He will provide the leadership and advocacy necessary for continued enhancement of the Mount’s outstanding faculty and academic programs.
Creasman, who currently is provost of West Virginia Wesleyan University, will serve as the chief academic officer of the Mount, acting as the principal champion for innovative vision, leadership, and direction for the university and its academic programs.
“We are excited to have Boyd join our Mount community,” said President Timothy E. Trainor, Ph.D. “Student success is our top priority in our just-released strategic plan, and I am confident that he will help lead our academic program to an even higher level of excellence. We look forward to Boyd helping lead Mount St. Mary’s University into the future.”
“I am incredibly pleased to join the Mount community,” Creasman said. “This university offers a rich tradition and history, excellent programs and extremely talented and dedicated faculty. The Mount has an exciting future, and I am honored to be given an opportunity to play a role in its continuing success.”
Creasman joins the Mount at an important time as momentum builds from a series of leadership and academic successes, including a 24 percent increase in freshman enrollment; approval of a strategic plan; the introduction of four academic programs (cybersecurity, politics/philosophy/economics, entrepreneurship, and forensic accounting); articulation agreements in cybersecurity and biology with Frederick Community College; and the awarding of Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grants to three recent graduates. As the Mount launches searches for two academic deans, Trainor and Creasman will build a team of top academic leaders.
Creasman’s four years as West Virginia Wesleyan’s provost resulted in considerable progress in assessing student learning and aiding faculty in becoming more effective in their teaching. He helped develop a profitable graduate program in nursing and co-wrote a grant proposal that resulted in a $10 million five-year Title III grant focused on improving student success and student engagement. Prior to becoming chief academic officer, Creasman held a number of administrative roles at West Virginia Wesleyan, including service as English department chair, director of the School of Fine Arts and Humanities and founder and director of the first-year seminar program.
Earlier in his career, Creasman enjoyed a career as an English professor at West Virginia Wesleyan, teaching a range of literature and writing classes. He has published articles and presented conference papers on writers as diverse as Anton Chekhov, Graham Greene and Jayne Anne Phillips. Building upon research informed by his teaching of Appalachian literature, Creasman in 2016 published Writing West Virginia, the first study of literature from the Mountain State to analyze multiple authors.
Creasman holds a Bachelor of Arts from Middle Tennessee State University and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in English from Florida State University.
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Frederick News-Post |