First of three U of A provost finalists revealed, visits campus this week

Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, the first of three final candidates for University of Arizona provost, is on campus this week for his final interview.

Abd-El-Khalick, who has served as the dean of the School of Education at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill since 2016, arrived in Tucson on Sunday. According to internal scheduling documents obtained by the Arizona Daily Star, his day began on Monday with meetings with UA President Robert C. Robbins and Chief Information Officer Barry Brummund.

Abd-El-Khalick is set to participate in an open forum with the campus community, as well as private meetings with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, on Tuesday. His public open forum is set for 2:30-3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, in the Social Sciences Building on campus.

On Monday Abd-El-Khalick was also to meet with Clarisa Robles Parra, the provost chief of staff; Christie Harper, the vice president of brand engagement and marketing; Jon Dudas, the senior vice president and secretary of the university; and Interim Provost Ron Marx.

Robbins announced in May 2023 that Liesl Folks was stepping down as provost but would stay in the role, for which she was paid $497,490 a year through the end of the year. There has been a nationwide search over the last year. The other two finalists are also expected to be on campus in the coming weeks for final interviews; a UA spokeswoman declined to disclose their names yet.

Abd-El-Khalick received his bachelor’s degree from American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and his Ph.D. at Oregon State University. Abd-El-Khalick began his career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000 and worked there until he was hired to helm the School of Education at UNC in 2016.

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He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and, according to his bio on the UNC webpage, he is a “leading researcher on the teaching and learning about nature of science in precollege grades and teacher-education settings.”

Additionally, Abd-El-Khalick has served as editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) and associate editor of the Journal of Science Teacher Education, JRST and School Science and Mathematics. He is on the executive board of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, and in 2022 the group gave him the “Distinguished Contributions to Science Education through Research Award,” its highest honor.

At the School of Education at UNC, Abd-El-Khalick spearheaded a number of initiatives to increase the number of teachers in the state and helped the school receive important grants.

He oversaw the implementation of a $4.8 million grant to the school from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a sustainable and efficient program for recruitment of underrepresented teachers in Durham Public Schools.

Additionally, Abd-El-Khalick worked to create a new major, human organizational leadership and development, which he said in an interview with the Daily Tar Heel would “extend the reach of the College of Education in terms of preparing future leaders of nongovernmental agencies, corporations and businesses.”