Nevada System of Higher Education announces 4 chancellor finalists

The Nevada System of Higher Education on Tuesday announced four finalists for its chancellor position.

The finalists are Arthur Ellis, Richard Larson, Anthony Munroe and Melody Rose. They’ll participate in virtual public forums June 15-16.

The chancellor is responsible for overseeing the state’s public higher education system, including UNLV and UNR, Nevada State College, four community colleges and Desert Research Institute. Those schools serve a total of more than 100,000 students.

Ellis, who has a doctoral degree, retired last fall as a vice president in the University of California Office of the President. Larson, a medical doctor who also has a doctoral degree, is executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for research at the University of New Mexico. Munroe, who has a doctoral degree in education, is president of Essex County College in New Jersey.

Rose — who has a doctoral degree — is owner and principal of Rose Strategies, which provides consulting services to universities. She was previously chancellor of the Oregon university system and president of Marylhurst University in Oregon.

Current NSHE Chancellor Thom Reilly — who was appointed in June 2017 — announced last year he won’t seek an extension of his contract after completing his three-year term. He plans to return to a faculty position at Arizona State University.

Reilly’s contract was extended to Dec. 31 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When a new chancellor begins, Reilly will transition to an advisory role, NSHE spokesman Francis McCabe told the Review-Journal on Tuesday.

A start date for the new chancellor won’t be set until one is appointed, he said.

The four chancellor finalists will participate next week in virtual forums, which will be streamed online. There will be separate two-hour forums for each finalist.

Three are slated for June 15: Munroe from 9:30-11:30 a.m., Ellis from noon-2 p.m. and Rose from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Larson’s forum is 9-11 a.m. June 16. Members of the public can submit a question on NSHE’s website.

A chancellor search committee will meet at 8:30 a.m. June 17 at NSHE’s administration office, 4300 S. Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas, with a video or phone connection to NSHE’s Reno office, 2601 Enterprise Road. The meeting will possibly resume at 8:30 a.m. June 18 if more time is needed.

The committee will come up with interview questions, talk about the finalists’ performance during the virtual forums and conduct interviews.

Members of the public will be allowed to attend the meeting in-person at NSHE offices “as space permits” in compliance with social distancing, according to the statement. In-person attendance will be limited to 50 people at each site.

To ensure “a fair and equitable interview process for each candidate regardless of the order in which the interviews occur, this meeting will not be livestreamed on the internet,” according to the meeting agenda.

The NSHE Board of Regents will conduct a special meeting at 1 p.m. June 18 via teleconference to consider the search committee’s recommendation and possibly appoint a new chancellor.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.