Posted on November 24, 2020 by Wendy Frost

Pamela Smith UTSA Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy announced the appointment of Pamela Smith as interim dean of the College of Business, effective January 1, 2021, while a national search is conducted.

College for Health, Community and Policy Dean Lynne Cossman will chair the search advisory committee; Lorenzo Gomez , CEO of Geekdom and co-founder of the 80/20 Foundation, will serve as honorary co-chair. National search firm Greenwood/Asher & Associates will assist the committee.

“I am grateful to Dr. Smith for serving as the college’s interim dean for this coming year as we conduct a national search for the next dean, and I thank the COB faculty and staff in advance for supporting her in this transition,” said Espy. “Pamela will provide strategic and experienced leadership as the college prepares for its AACSB accreditation review visit in 2021-2022, since she has been deeply involved in the college’s assessment and accreditation processes for AACSB as well as the university’s SACSCOC reaffirmation of accreditation.

“I also want to thank those who provided input on the desired qualities for an interim dean at the COB open forum held earlier this month as well as those who reached out directly to share their thoughts and submit nominations.”

A professor of accounting, Smith joined the faculty of the College of Business in 2001.

Since September 2019 she has served as the college’s associate dean of administration and faculty. In this position Smith has been responsible for overseeing COB operations and administrative functions—including the budget, human resources, information technology, facilities and space planning, infrastructure and faculty affairs—and for collaborating with the dean’s staff and department chairs to coordinate and implement college initiatives, academic programming and student success efforts.

Prior to her current role, she served as the college’s associate dean of graduate studies from 2016 to 2019.

Smith will not be a candidate for the permanent dean position; she will fully resume her role as associate dean of administration and faculty following the installation of the new dean.

— Wendy Frost