Jean Bartels Is the New Leader of Georgia Southern University

The University System of Georgia has announced that Jean Bartels will serve as interim president of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. The university, northeast of Savannah, enrolls about 18,000 undergraduates and 2,600 graduate students. Women make up half of the undergraduate student body.

Dr. Bartels assumed the role of interim president on July 20 upon the departure of Brooks A. Keel, who left to become president of Georgia Regents University in Augusta. Since July 2012, Dr. Bartels served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Georgia Southern. Previously, she was dean of the university’s College of Health and Human Sciences. She joined the faculty at the university in 1999 as a professor of nursing.

Dr. Bartels is a graduate of Alverno University in Milwaukee. She holds a master’s degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee and a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.