Dr. Robert Marley will become provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Missouri S&T on July 14, 2014. Photo courtesy of Montana State University.

Dr. Robert Marley, interim vice president for student success at Montana State University in Bozeman, will become the next provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Missouri S&T Chancellor Cheryl B. Schrader announced today (Friday, May 2).

Marley will begin his new duties at Missouri S&T on July 14, 2014. He succeeds Dr. Warren K. Wray, who will become vice chancellor for global and strategic partnerships at Missouri S&T effective July 14, 2014.

“Dr. Marley is a highly qualified educator and leader with nearly 30 years of research and teaching experience at two universities,” Schrader says. “He brings a breadth of experience and knowledge that will serve our university well as we move forward with our bold strategic plan goals of providing a top return on investment. I look forward to working with Dr. Marley and having him as an important partner on our leadership team.”

Marley joined the Montana State faculty in 1990 as an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering. He served as associate professor and professor in that department before becoming associate dean for Montana State’s College of Engineering in 1996. In 2001, he became dean of engineering and director of the Engineering Experiment Station.

While dean, Marley led diversity efforts that resulted in a nearly five-fold increase in women faculty and recognition as one of the nation’s leading colleges in the graduation of Native American students. Under his leadership, the college’s annual research expenditures nearly tripled and endowments and gifts increased by more than $30 million.

From August 2012 through June 2013, Marley served as an American Council on Education Fellow at Texas A&M University while on leave from Montana State. During that year, he worked closely with Texas A&M’s president, Dr. R. Bowen Loftin, who is now chancellor of the University of Missouri-Columbia. He returned to Montana State in 2013 to serve as interim vice president for student success.

In his current position at Montana State, Marley oversees the dean of students, recruitment and admissions, enrollment management, the registrar’s office, veterans affairs, career services, disability services, and medical and counseling services, and leads numerous student success efforts.

At Missouri S&T, Marley will oversee all academic programs as well as enrollment management, pre-college programs, information technology, research and sponsored programs, technology transfer, undergraduate and graduate studies, and Curtis Laws Wilson Library.

Marley holds three degrees from Wichita State University: a bachelor of general sciences with an experimental psychology emphasis, master of science in engineering management science and Ph.D. in industrial engineering with an emphasis in occupational ergonomics and human factors engineering.

Before joining Montana State, Marley served as a rehabilitation engineering technician with the Rehabilitation Engineering Center in Wichita, Kansas, part of the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation, from 1983 to 1985. He joined Wichita State in 1985 as a research assistant and was named a Boeing Fellow at Wichita State in 1988.

Marley is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education and served on ASEE’s national board of directors from 2004 to 2006. He also received ASEE’s Meritorious Service Award in 2006. He served as president of the International Society for Occupational Ergonomics and Safety from 2009 to 2010.

On July 14, 2014, Wray will become vice chancellor for global and strategic partnerships at Missouri S&T.

In his new position, Wray will direct Missouri S&T’s outreach and global enterprise through corporate relations, international affairs, and distance and online education. He joined Missouri S&T as provost in 2006.

“I would like to thank Kent Wray for his leadership over the past several years,” Schrader says. “He has helped position Missouri S&T as a global leader in education and research, and I’m confident that he will not only build on our strong international and corporate partnerships, but also create new entrepreneurial ventures and continue to expand our international recognition and reputation.”