Two University Deans Announce They Are Stepping Down

Barbara W. Shank, a professor and dean of the School of Social Work at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, announced that she will retire at the end of the academic year. She will spend the 2017-18 academic year on sabbatical compiling the history of the university’s social work program.

Dr. Shank was one of the founding faculty members of the social work program in 1978 and became the founding dean of the School of Social Work in 1996. Professor Shank is a graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul. She earned a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.

Pamela Matson, dean of the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University, announced that she will step down as dean on December 31, 2017. She has served as dean for the past 15 years. Dr Matson will continue to teach after Stanford after she steps down as dean.

Professor Matson is the coauthor of Pursuing Sustainability: A Guide to the Science and Practice  (Princeton University Press 2016). She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she majored in biology. She holds a master’s degree in environmental science from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in forest ecology from Oregon State University.