University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Acting Chancellor Barbara Wilson has named as interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost designate Edward J. Feser, dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. His appointment will be submitted to the Board of Trustees for approval at its Sept. 10 meeting.
Feser joined the university in 2004 as a professor of urban and regional planning, and he served as department head of that unit for several years before being recruited away for an endowed faculty position in the Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. The campus attracted him back to Urbana in 2012 as the dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts.
“Dean Feser has been a driving force in building and supporting innovation, collaboration and creative work in the College of Fine and Applied Arts,” said Wilson. “He has a deep and sophisticated understanding of academic budgets, an ability to bring people with disparate views together, and the wisdom and experience to guide the dean searches we will undertake this year.”
Feser earned a bachelor of arts in government at the University of San Francisco (1989); a master's in regional planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1995); and a doctorate in regional planning, also at UNC (1997).
Before coming to Illinois, Feser was a faculty member in the Department of City & Regional Planning at UNC for seven years. He also was a visiting research fellow in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and in the Center for Economic Studies in the U.S. Census.
His research focuses on technology-based regional economic development, institutional innovation in public sector organizations, and policies supporting urban and business development. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has authored more than 70 scholarly articles, chapters and technical reports. He has won several teaching awards.
Feser has tapped Krannert Art Museum Director Kathleen Harleman to serve as acting dean until he is able to resume his duties in FAA.