Four chancellor finalists will be visiting Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland from Nov. 27-Dec. 5.

They will meet with campus leaders and participate in open forums with students, faculty, and staff during their visits to the Tri-City campus.

Details about the visits are online at https://president.wsu.edu/tri-cities-chancellor/.

An 18-member search committee, headed up by co-chairmen Carl Adrian, president and CEO of Tri-City Development Council, and Paul Pitre, chancellor of the WSU North Puget Sound at Everett, narrowed the field of finalists. The university hired national executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, based in Boston, to conduct the candidate search.

The finalists, identified after a national search, include:

• K. Ramesh, director and lead principal investigator of the AIMS² program (Attract, Inspire, Mentor and Support Students) and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cal State University, Northridge. He served as dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at CSU Northridge from 2006-2017. He earned a doctorate in molecular science at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He visits the Tri-Cities on Nov. 27.
• Douglas Ray most recently served as the first director of strategic partnerships at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland during a 27-year career at at the lab. He held a variety of positions at PNNL, including associate laboratory director for fundamental and computational sciences directorate; deputy director for science and technology; and chief research officer. He earned a doctorate in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He visits the Tri-Cities on Nov. 28.
• Anthony Vizzini, provost and senior vice president at Wichita State University. He also has served in administrative and faculty positions at Western Michigan University, Mississippi State University and the University of Maryland. He earned a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He visits the Tri-Cities on Nov. 29.
• Sandra Haynes, deputy provost of academic and student affairs, a position that oversees all academic affairs units, at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She previously served 13 years as dean of the College of Professional Studies at Metropolitan State Denver. She earned a doctorate in experimental neuropsychology at Colorado State University. She visits the Tri-Cities on Dec. 4.

“We are very pleased with the exceptional caliber of these four individuals,” said WSU President Kirk Schulz in a news release. “The Tri-Cities campus is a vital part of our statewide enterprise, and each of these candidates offers the vision and skills required to guide the campus to an expanded role in serving the state’s needs.”

Finalists also will meet with administrators, faculty and staff during visits to Pullman.

Current WSU Tri-Cities Chancellor Keith Moo-Young announced last May he would step down from the position. He will remain as chancellor until successor is in place, likely until 2018.

Moo-Young is leaving before his five-year contract is up. He joined the Richland campus four years ago, earning a $300,000 annual salary.

WSU Tri-Cities enrolls 1,937 students, more than 70 percent of whom study STEM-related academic disciplines. The campus offers 20 undergraduate and 33 graduate degrees. The student body is the most diverse among the university’s five campuses, according to a news release.