EIU Media Relations

Izadi Named Dean of Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences

Mahyar Izadi has been chosen as permanent dean of Eastern Illinois University's Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences, effective July 1.

The former chair of Eastern's School of Technology has served as interim dean since Fall 2010, replacing Diane Hoadley, who accepted the role of dean of the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.

"I am pleased to announce that Dr. Mahyar Izadi has agreed to serve as the next dean of the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences," said Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs.  "He brings a wealth of knowledge about the college and Eastern to this assignment, an extensive record of excellent leadership of the School of Technology, and demonstrated administrative and personnel management skills.

"I look forward to his leading the college and each of its academic units to new levels of achievement and accomplishment."

In addition to the Schools of Business, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Technology, the LCBAS represents Eastern's Department of Military Science.

For 11 years before being named interim dean, Izadi served as chair of Eastern's School of Technology, with the number of faculty and students in that area nearly doubling during his tenure. Previously, he served as coordinator of the Industrial Technology Program.

He has extensive background in developing lasting relationships with Illinois community colleges, international partners, and the business and industry community. He served as president of the university and research divisions of the Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering. He also served as the team chair for nine out of 13 ATMAE accreditation visits to colleges and universities.

Izadi, upon accepting his new appointment, expressed his pleasure at being able to continue his work of the past few months.

"The LCBAS is comprised of highly qualified, dedicated and talented faculty, staff and students, whom I am honored to serve," he said.  "My primary goal as dean will be to advance the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences' mission and goals within Eastern Illinois University.

"In addition to supporting the president's and provost's goals, initiatives such as student engagement and retention, globalization, innovation and scholarship, and faculty collaborations will be of great importance to me.

"And as a firm believer in the natural connection among various subject matters, I think the Lumpkin College is in an incredible position to contribute to integrative learning at EIU," he added.

Lord also commended those who conducted the search for a permanent dean.

"I want to go on record as thanking the search advisory committee, which was ably led by Dean Mary Anne Hanner, for conducting a model search," he said.  "Five worthy candidates were brought to campus for our consideration.  As is fairly common in such searches, some of them took themselves out of consideration during the search process, but we had a very strong group of candidates from which to make a selection."