Keith Pickus has been named interim dean of Wichita State’s College of Health Professions, effective Aug. 5. He will serve in that capacity for the 2013-2014 academic year.

Pickus will replace current dean Peter Cohen, who announced this past fall that he would step down from the dean position to assume a faculty role at WSU.

Pickus has served as interim provost since June 2011. Anthony Vizzini will assume the renamed position as vice president for academic affairs at Wichita State, effective July 1.

A national search for dean of the College of Health Professions is expected to resume later this year.

“Keith has worked well with the executive team, and he brings strong budgeting and management skills to the position,” said President John Bardo. “During the next academic year, the college will be involved in extensive strategic planning, and Keith’s background will be a significant asset in this process.”

Academic career

Pickus’ professional academic career began in 1991 as a lecturer in modern European, German and Jewish history at the University of Washington.

During the 1994-1995 academic year, he was a visiting professor at Montana State University, and he assumed a tenure-track position in the History Department at Wichita State University in 1995.

In 2000, Pickus began his formal administrative career, when he took on the role of graduate program coordinator for the History Department.

He was tenured and promoted to associate professor in fall 2001.

He served as associate dean for the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 2001-2007, and as associate provost for Strategic Planning and Operations from 2007-2011.

Pickus earned a Bachelor of Arts in History with honors from the University of California-Santa Barbara.

He was awarded a Master of Arts in modern German history from the University of Washington in 1988.

Pickus completed his doctoral program in modern European Jewish history at the University of Washington in June 1993.