Marshall Provost Dr. Avi Mukherjee said the new leaders were selected after an extensive national search and that their expertise and guidance will be invaluable to the university.
Dr. Wesley Stites was appointed dean of the college of science. Stites, a native of Cañon City, Colorado, did his undergraduate work in chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. He was awarded a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He returned to Baltimore, this time to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, for postdoctoral research in molecular biology and biophysics, supported with a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellowship. Stites comes to Marshall from the University of Arkansas where he has served in several capacities including associate vice chancellor for research and innovation.
Dr. Eric Blough will serve as the new dean of Marshall’s School of Pharmacy. Blough joined Marshall as an assistant professor in the department of biological sciences in 2003. In 2012, he became an inaugural faculty member at the school of pharmacy as an associate professor, and then in 2014 as a full professor. From 2015-2018, he was the assistant dean of curriculum before being appointed as the associate dean of academic affairs in 2018. He has been serving as the interim dean of the school since January of 2022. Blough graduated from Michigan Technological University in 1990 with his bachelor’s degree, then completed a master’s in exercise physiology at Southern Illinois University and completed a Ph.D. program at the Ohio State University.
Dr. Annette Ferguson was selected to steward Marshall’s nursing program. Ferguson earned her master’s degree in nursing with a focus in nursing education from Regis University in Denver, Colorado, and a Doctor of Nursing practice in leadership from Eastern Kentucky University. She has been a registered nurse for over 25 years with a focus in critical care and has worked in higher education as a nurse educator for over 18 years. She has been an associate professor of nursing at Marshall University since 2017. In the fall of 2019, Ferguson served as the director of the pre-licensure B.S.N. program until she was appointed the interim chair for the School of Nursing in 2022. She has presented at numerous conferences and published research findings in peer-reviewed nursing journals.
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Photos: From left are Dr. Eric Blough, Dr. Annette Ferguson and Dr. Wesley Stites.