Pichot Named Interim Dean, College of Professions

June 7, 2021

Colleagues,

Please join me in congratulating Kim Pichot for accepting the call to serve as our interim dean in the College of Professions.

Before accepting this new role, Pichot was serving as our assistant dean and professor of management and marketing in the School of Business Administration. Kim is a daughter of Andrews University. She served here as a faculty many years ago before transitioning to Washington Adventist University, where she served as professor and chair of the Department of Business. She returned home to her Andrews family in 2016. I am pleased that she has agreed to serve as our interim dean. She will do a fabulous job!

Pichot’s appointment as interim dean has also created a vacancy for the assistant dean position in the College of Professions. I have asked Lucile Sabas to serve as interim assistant dean. Sabas is currently a professor of economics in the School of Business Administration. Prior to coming to Andrews University, she served in many roles internationally, including as president at Cosendai Adventist University in Cameroon.

Of course, the College of Professions dean position became vacant because our colleague, Ralph Trecartin, current dean and associate provost for cross-campus collaborations, accepted the call to serve as the 24th president of our sister college, Pacific Union College, in Angwin, California. He will begin working in this new position on July 1, 2021.

Ralph first began serving as dean of the School of Business Administration and associate provost in January 2017 and became dean of the newly formed College of Professions two years ago, in May 2019. Ralph, one of our MBA graduates, first came to Andrews University from The College at Brockport, State University of New York, where he served for nearly 20 years in international education roles, including ultimately serving as the SUNY campus’s assistant provost for International Education, as well as an associate professor of finance.

Pacific Union College has made a wise choice in the selection of Ralph as their next president, and we will miss his influence, passion and impact on our campus. The College of Professions has arranged a come-and-go reception on Wednesday, June 23, from 2–4 p.m. in the Whirlpool Room, Chan Shun Hall (COVID-19 protocols will be followed), for those who would like to spend a few moments personally sharing their best wishes with Ralph before he moves west to take on his new role.

We are truly grateful for your service, Ralph, and Andrews University welcomes the prayers and support of our Andrews University community as we begin the important work of identifying Ralph’s permanent successor. That work will be guided by a search committee, which will be announced shortly, to begin a national search process. Please let me know if you have any candidates that we should consider during this process.

There are a few other administrative changes that we will be making prior to the start of the 2021–2022 academic year. I will be sharing those additional announcements with you shortly.

Cordially,

Christon Arthur
Provost