Atlanta — October 8, 2009

Regent Donald M. Leebern Jr. chair of the Special Regents’ Committee for the presidential search at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, and University System of Georgia Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer Susan Herbst have announced the names of the three finalists for the Georgia Southern University presidency.

A national search was launched to replace Georgia Southern President Bruce Grube, who will step down as President, effective December 31, 2009. Dr. Grube has served the University System in this role since July 1, 1999.

The recommended individuals are:

• Dr. David Belcher, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, since July 2003. Prior to his current appointment, Belcher was dean of Missouri State University’s College of Arts and Letters, Springfield, from 1994-2003. His professional career began in 1988 at Missouri State University where he served as assistant dean, College of Arts and Letters (1994-2003) and coordinator of keyboard studies (1989-1992).

  A pianist, Belcher has appeared throughout the United States as recitalist and chamber musician and was a 2006 participant in the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Mass. In 1981, Belcher was awarded a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship to study in Vienna, Austria. He holds degrees from Furman University, Greenville, S.C., the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. While a student at the Eastman School, he held a one-year appointment to the school’s piano faculty and was named the recipient of the Jerald C. Graue Memorial Scholarship for excellence in musicological research. Belcher holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School.

• Dr. Brooks A. Keel, vice chancellor for research and economic development and professor of biological sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, since 2006. Prior to his current appointments, Keel was a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and associate vice president for research at Florida State University, Tallahassee, from 2002-2006. His professional career began in 1985 at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, where he served in a variety of positions including the Daniel K. Roberts Distinguished Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (1995-2001), president of the Women’s Research Institute (1993-2001), and director of Reproductive Medicine Laboratories (1994-2002). He is a member of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Gynecologic Investigation, among others. Keel has served on numerous boards related to his discipline, including the American Board of Bioanalysis, and has been honored for his work by these and other organizations.

  Keel earned a Ph.D. in reproductive endocrinology from the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, and a bachelor of science in biology and chemistry from Augusta College (now Augusta State University), Augusta, Ga. He has done postdoctoral work at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and the University of South Dakota School of Medicine, Vermillion.

• Dr. Kathleen Long, associate provost, since 2008 and dean of the College of Nursing, since 1995, University of Florida, Gainesville. Prior to her current appointments, Long was dean and professor in psychiatric nursing at Montana State University, Bozeman, from 1990-1995. She has been actively involved in baccalaureate and higher degree education for more than 20 years, serving as a faculty member, administrator and consultant at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Husson College, Bangor, Maine and Montana State University, Bozeman. Long served as president of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing from 2002-2004, in addition to serving several terms on its board of directors.

  Long received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. and earned a master’s degree in nursing from Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich. specializing in child psychiatric nursing and nursing education. She earned her PhD in behavioral sciences from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Long is an elected member of Sigma Theta Tau, Phi Kappa Phi and Delta Omega honorary societies. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a Life Fellow of the American Orthopsychiatric Association.

The Board of Regents expects to name the next president of Georgia Southern University at a future meeting.

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