Dr. Lisa Nolan has been appointed College of Veterinary Medicine’s next dean. Nolan will replace the current dean, Dr. John Thomson, at the beginning of the spring 2011 semester.

Nolan is the first female dean of the college, which was created in 1879.

“There’s such a proud tradition of teaching, research and service here and I’m really proud to be a part of it and being able to be dean of this college is such an honor,” Nolan said. “I’m really humbled by it.”

“Dr. Nolan is a very respected scientist and administrator, I’m sure she’ll do an excellent job,” Thomson said. “She’s very well informed about all aspects of the college and she should get off to a fast start and should do a great job.”

Nolan plans on continually improving programs and education at the college as dean.

“There’s not a part of the college we don’t want to continue to improve on. I see a real potential to build our research capacity. We’re good, but we could be great,” Nolan said. “We’ve got remarkable people here and they’re highly productive. They’re already the number one in citations per research articles in veterinary journals. That’s an awesome statistic, but we could be even better.”

Nolan is currently the associate dean for research and graduate studies at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Nolan received her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, master’s degree and Doctorate of Medical Microbiology from the University of Georgia. She was also named the distinguished educator of the year from North Dakota State University’s Blue Key Fraternity in 2001.

Nolan was selected over three other candidates for the position.