Cindy Claycomb has been named interim dean of the W. Frank Barton School of Business, effective June 2, according to Keith Pickus, interim provost at Wichita State University.

Claycomb will be interim dean for the 2013-2014 academic year while a national search is conducted for a permanent dean.

“Dr. Claycomb demonstrated great leadership as co-chair of the WSU strategic planning steering committee this past year,” said Wichita State President John Bardo. “I’m confident that she will accept this next challenge with the same enthusiasm, energy and commitment.”

The change was necessitated when Doug Hensler, the current dean, announced recently that he is leaving Wichita State to assume the position of provost at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

“Dr. Claycomb has developed great relationships in the community and on campus,” said Pickus. “She will help ensure that the W. Frank Barton School of Business continues to move forward in the coming year.”

Claycomb joined the WSU faculty in 1994 as an assistant professor of marketing and entrepreneurship in the Barton School of Business. She was promoted to associate professor in 2000, and to full professor in 2006.

In 2004, she was awarded a teaching fellowship and became the Neff Family Fellow in Business. She won the 2003 Wichita State University Board of Trustees’ Award for Leadership in the Advancement of Teaching. In 1996, she won the Barton School’s “Instructor of the Year” award.

Claycomb won the Barton School’s “Researcher/Writer of the Year” award in 2004 and 2000. She held a Barton Fellow position in the Barton School during 2002, 2003, 2011 and 2012. These fellowships recognize quality research.

Before coming to Wichita State, Claycomb held several management positions in her 10 years with Pizza Hut Inc.

Claycomb received her doctoral degree in marketing at Oklahoma State University and her master’s and undergraduate degrees at Wichita State.

Her areas of expertise are marketing management, sales, retail, services marketing, relationship marketing and supply chain management.