Eastern named a graduate and 20-plus-year employee as the new dean of its College of Sciences.

Mary Anne Hanner, who has served as the acting dean since September 2000 when Lida Wall left the position to become acting vice president for academic affairs, will assume the permanent position on July 1, 2002.

“After a full national search, we determined that we had the best person for the job already doing it,” Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, said in a press release Monday. The search began in January.

“I am looking forward to having her continue as the dean of the college and know that, under her leadership, it will continue to achieve excellence for which it is already known,” Lord said.

Hanner began her career at Eastern in 1981 as a faculty member in the department of of communication disorders and sciences.

In 1985, she became the director of the Speech Language Hearing Clinic, a job she held for 13 years.

She has served has the chair of the communications disorders and sciences department and acting associate dean of the College of Sciences.

After graduating from Eastern with a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology and a master’s degree in speech pathology, Hanner spent nearly 10 years has a speech/language pathologist in the Illinois public school system.

In 1994, Hanner received her Ph.D. in educational administration from Indiana State University.

During her career at Eastern, Hanner also served as vice chair and chair of the Speech Pathology and Audiology Board of the Department of Professional Regulation from 1990 to 2000. Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar appointed her to serve on the board.

Other finalists in the search were Philip Suckling, director of the geography department at University of Northern Iowa; Patrick Brown, director of the Center for Wildlife Ecology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Edward Kick, chair of the sociology/anthropology department at Middle Tennessee State University.

In another dean search, Lord said he is in the negotiation stages of hiring a new dean for the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences.

The College of Educational and Professional Studies is also searching for a new dean. The final of four candidates for the position interviews on Monday and Tuesday.