In late January, President Neil Bose advised the Board of Regents and the university community of his intention to retire on April 5, the end of his term as president and vice-chancellor pro tempore.
As I said publicly at the time, the Board of Regents deeply appreciates his leadership and dedication to Memorial, in particular over the past seven-and-a-half years in senior leadership positions.
At the Board of Regents meeting yesterday, appointments were approved.
Beginning on April 6, 2025, Dr. Jennifer Lokash will serve as president and vice-chancellor pro tempore of Memorial University.
Dr. Lokash was named provost and vice-president (academic) in January 2025 after serving in the role on an interim basis since April 2023. The Memorial University Act calls for the vice-president (academic) to perform the duties of the president when the role of president is vacant. I look forward to working with Dr. Lokash in her new role as president. I am confident she will lead Memorial with a thoughtful, strategic approach to navigating the opportunities and challenges facing our university.
While Dr. Lokash serves as president, Dr. Amy Warren will step into the role of provost and vice-president (academic) pro tempore.
Dr. Warren currently holds the position of associate vice president (academic), dean of the School of Graduate Studies and interim vice-provost (Labrador Campus). The university will make an announcement at a later date about backfilling these roles.
The Board of Regents also approved President Bose’s recommendations to extend two appointments at the vice-presidential level. Dr. Ken Jacobsen, interim vice-president (Grenfell Campus) and Dr. Tana Allen have been extended in their current positions for a year, or until a new vice-president is appointed. Dr. Allen’s title has changed from acting vice-president (research) to vice-president (research) pro tempore.
I am grateful to these leaders for their ongoing commitment to Memorial.
As chair of the board, I see first-hand the work of leaders, faculty, staff, students and my fellow regents. While there have been challenges and changes in the last few years, I remain confident in the people of Memorial and appreciative of the talent and dedication within our university. Thank you in particular to the employees who have managed times of transition without losing focus on the importance of our academic mission, the support systems for students or the criticality of our publicly engaged research.
Much work has been done in the last number of months to stabilize the senior leadership team, including the appointment of Dr. Lokash as provost and nine decanal appointments. The work of the Presidential Search Committee is continuing on schedule and the committee will continue to update the university community regularly.
