UM names
first
woman provost
An administrator at Ohio's Kent State University will become the first
woman to oversee academic affairs at The University of Montana. Lois Muir, associate
provost and professor of educational psychology at Kent State, will become UM's provost
and vice president for academic affairs July 1. As UM's No. 2 administrator, she will be
the highest ranking woman in UM history.
Muir will replace Robert L. Kindrick, who is leaving UM this summer for a similar
position at Wichita State University in Kansas. Muir was among five finalists who visited
UM earlier this month for interviews and public forums.
Muir has held her current position since 1996. Before that she served as dean of
graduate studies; dean of arts, humanities and social sciences; and psychology professor
at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Muir has held other administrative positions at the University of Wisconsin in La
Crosse and the University of South Dakota. Before moving into administration, she served
on the psychology faculty at Indiana University, Rutgers University and the University of
Wisconsin in La Crosse.
As a researcher, Muir specializes in developmental psychology with an emphasis on
parent-infant relationships and the psychology of women. Her current work involves the
longitudinal study of variables that influence mothers' relationships with their children.
This particular study began in the third trimester of their pregnancies with follow-up
studies at six weeks and one, two and nine years.
In 1982 Muir earned her doctorate in psychology from State University of New York at
Stony Brook, where she majored in experimental psychology. She earned a master's degree in
family and child development and a minor in clinical psychology from Auburn University in
1978 and a bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in computer science from the
University of Texas at Austin in 1974.
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