Marquette University is hiring a new Graduate School dean who was an up-and-coming administrator and psychology researcher at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee while Marquette President Michael Lovell was chancellor there.
Douglas Woods, who left UWM in 2013 to head the psychology department at Texas AM, will begin his new role at Marquette on Jan. 1, Lovell announced Thursday. Lovell himself left UWM in 2014 to become president of Marquette.
"Graduate education and related research productivity are top priorities for Marquette, and Dr. Woods brings impressive experience in both areas," Lovell said in prepared remarks Thursday.
Woods has won more than $3 million in psychology research grants during his 16-year career in academia — 14 of those years at UWM. Add grants for which he has been a team member, and the total is about $7 million, he said.
At UWM, Woods served as chair of psychology and associate dean for social sciences, education and business at the UWM Graduate School. He also was an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin for about five of those years.
Woods started his academic career as an assistant professor of psychology at UWM.
His research interests are in understanding, developing treatments for and disseminating behavioral interventions for children and adults with Tourette syndrome, trichotillomania and other OCD-spectrum disorders.
Woods said Thursday that he left UWM in 2013 to gain more supervisory and budget authority experience at a large university. His goal was to apply for a dean's position in a few years.
"When I saw this opportunity, I thought, 'This is perfect,'" Woods said. "My wife and I loved Milwaukee and were sad to leave."
At Marquette, Woods will succeed Kevin Gibson, who has been serving as interim dean since January, when Jeanne Hossenlopp, former Graduate School dean, was named vice president for research and innovation.
Woods earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Ohio University in 1993, a master's degree in clinical psychology from North Dakota State University in 1995 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Western Michigan University in 1999.