DR. DAVID O. ROBBINS ’65 NAMED INTERIM

 PRESIDENT AT OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
 

The Executive Committee of the Ohio Wesleyan University Board of Trustees recently announced the appointment of David O. Robbins, Ph.D., to the position of interim president. Robbins, a 34-year Ohio Wesleyan employee, will assume his new role July 1, following the departure of current President Mark W. Huddleston.

Robbins is a 1965 graduate of Lycoming College, where he earned bachelor of arts degrees in biology and psychology. He received both his master’s degree and his doctorate in physiological psychology from the University of Delaware.

“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am deeply grateful to David for assuming the responsibilities of interim president,” said Board Chair Kathe Law Rhinesmith, a 1964 Ohio Wesleyan graduate, in a prepared statement. “We thank him for his leadership in this important time of transition within the university, and we look forward to working with him.”

Robbins joined the Ohio Wesleyan faculty in 1973. He has served as provost since August 2005, leading the faculty and working as an officer for the university. Robbins also has served as a professor and chair in the Department of Psychology, as director of the Neuroscience Program, and as director of the Summer Science Research Program.

Prior to joining Ohio Wesleyan, Robbins was a principal investigator in the Department of Physiology and then director of research at the Eye Research Foundation of Bethesda, Md., a former affiliate of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He also taught part time on the Maryland campus of the National Institutes of Health.

“I am humbled by the confidence placed in me by the Board and the community,” Robbins said in a statement. “Ohio Wesleyan is an institution of quality and strength, and we will continue to place the education of our students at the center of our organizational efforts. I look forward to my continued work with my colleagues, and I look forward to working with and supporting our new president when that appointment is made.”