WMU News

Appointments of aviation dean, director of race relations institute will go to trustees

June 17, 1999

KALAMAZOO -- The appointments of a dean for the College of Aviation and a director for the Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relations will be brought to the Board of Trustees June 25 for approval.

The appointments were announced, along with other personnel changes, in a June 16 memo to the University community from Provost Timothy Light.

James E. Crehan has been selected to serve as dean of the College of Aviation, formed with trustee approval in January from the School of Aviation Sciences. Crehan is currently an associate professor and chairperson of the Aviation Technology Division at the University of Alaska in Anchorage. Pending board approval, his appointment is effective Sept. 1.

Crehan had a 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force before entering academic life, teaching aviation first at Southern Illinois University from 1985 to 1988. He also has served as an associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Aerospace Technology at Indiana State University and as an associate professor of aviation at the University of Nebraska's Aviation Institute in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University and master's degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and from Central Michigan University. He is completing a doctoral degree at S.I.U.

William Santiago-Valles has been selected as the new director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relations. His appointment, which will be effective Aug. 10, will include faculty appointments in both communication and Black Americana Studies.

Santiago has held teaching and advising positions at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he completed his doctoral degree in 1998. He also has taught at the Interamerican University in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and served as guest lecturer and visiting scholar at a number of other institutions.

His research on intercultural communication, relations between groups and intergroup communication has been widely published and he has conducted numerous workshops and seminars on those topics. Santiago earned a bachelor's degree from Antioch College and a master's degree from the Graduate School of the Union Institute.

Light also will bring these other personnel matters to the board for approval at the June 25 meeting:

Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 616 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu


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