?”18885″ “2009-04-22 17:04:39” “GU Names Carol Lancaster SFS Interim Dean” “news” “30” “Academics and Faculty” “Courteney Lario ” “As Georgetown students solidify their summer plans, university officials announced yesterday that they have taken steps to secure the future of the School of Foreign Service by naming professor Carol Lancaster (SFS ’64) as interim dean.
Lancaster will begin her term on July 1, when Dean Robert Gallucci steps down from the post. Gallucci will leave Georgetown to become president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, an independent foundation that, according to its Web site, provides loans and grants to several programs that focus on community improvement, technology advances and international security issues.
Lancaster has worked at the university for 28 years, joining the SFS administration in 1989. She is currently the director of the Mortara Center for International Studies.
Lancaster says she plans to hold this position until January 2010, when a new director will take over.
“I know [Lancaster] will provide invaluable leadership during this time of transition for the SFS, and I am deeply grateful to her for taking on this important role,” said University Provost James O’Donnell in the e-mail announcement.
Lancaster said that she is also very excited about serving as the interim dean.
“An interim dean needs to make sure things run smoothly and begin to develop issues and options for the permanent dean – that is as far as I have gotten in my plans thus far,” she said.
Lancaster added that she is proud to be the first SFS graduate to hold this position. As a student, Lancaster was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Bolivia.
“She seemed the ideal person to give stability and direction to the whole SFS community during a transition year,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell also stated in the e-mail that he and University President John J. DeGioia have asked Angela Stent, a professor in the government department, to lead an international search for a new dean.
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