Vice President & Chief Academic Affairs finalists named

October 18, 2024

The search committee has recommended three finalists to President Pitney for a successor for Vice President Paul Layer, who plans to retire after a 35-year career at �Ӱ�ԭ�� and UA. The finalists will visit Fairbanks later this month to meet with university leadership, system office academic affairs staff and governance liaisons. The finalists’ dialogs with governance liaisons will be available as Zoom webinars for faculty, staff and students (UA login required).

Laurie Shanderson is the founder and CEO of Accreditation Insights, and previously served as the chancellor of Methodist College.
Lester Sandres Rapálo most recently served as the president of Rockland Community College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
Brian Smentkowski is the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Idaho, where he is also a professor of political science.

The candidates will be visiting Fairbanks October 23-25 for meetings with different stakeholder groups. To learn more about the finalists, including links to their CVs, please visit the VP-CAO finalists website.

We are planning a webinar forum for each of the candidates at 11 a.m. each day, set up as a Zoom webinar with governance members as panelists, and the webinar will be available to view for all other university affiliates; you will need to be logged in to your UA zoom account to access the webinar. Faculty Alliance Chair and search committee member Jennifer Carroll will host/moderate the forums.

We’ve also set up a question submission form where UA affiliates can submit questions to ask any/all of the candidates. A feedback form will be open from October 23 through October 30.

Please visit the VP-CAO finalists website if you have any questions or want more information.