Donna K. Arnett, dean of the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health, has been named executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South Carolina.
The provost is the university’s top academic administrator, charged with overseeing all the schools and colleges on the Columbia research campus, which collectively offer more than 300 degree programs.
The university also chose Julius Fridriksson, a stroke and aphasia researcher with UofSC’s Arnold School of Public Health, as vice president for research.
“With these hires, we have proven leaders who will take the university to new heights in achieving excellence in student instruction and groundbreaking research,” said interim President Harris Pastides.
As Kentucky’s public health dean since 2016, Arnett has provided oversight for the college’s academic offerings, worked to expand extramural funding and conducted the college’s first comprehensive strategic plan. Prior to joining Kentucky, Arnett was associate dean and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and is a past president of the American Heart Association.
“My goals are to ignite student success, listen to the faculty and students about how innovations brought on by the pandemic’s remote instruction might shape the future of teaching and learning, build upon the university’s already strong academic offerings and foster a climate of inclusive excellence across campus,” Arnett said.
Arnett, who will begin Aug. 1, earned a nursing degree from University of South Florida, a master’s in epidemiology and biostatistics from South Florida, and a doctorate in epidemiology from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. A native of Kentucky, Arnett grew up in Tampa, Florida.
Fridriksson has served as interim head of the university’s Office for Research since July 2021. He is director of the NIH-funded Center for the Study of Aphasia Recovery, which conducts groundbreaking research to help stroke victims recover from brain damage.
A native of Iceland, Fridriksson joined South Carolina in 2001 and is a SmartState Chair and Distinguished Health Sciences Professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders. He also serves as co-director of the McCausland Center for Brain Imaging. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders and a master’s in speech-language pathology from the University of Central Florida and a doctorate in speech and hearing sciences from the University of Arizona.
“It is such an honor to have this opportunity to serve as a steward of the University of South Carolina’s research enterprise,” Fridriksson said.
Carolina Corner is a bimonthly column from the University of South Carolina. Learn about how the university impacts the Upstate with research projects, accomplishments of past and present students and faculty, events and more.
