In a message sent to FAU faculty and staff last week, President Kelly announced that Interim Vice President of Institutional Advancement and the Executive Director of the FAU Foundation Dennis Crudele will be stepping down later this month.

Institutional advancement flow chart

In order to fill the vacancies Crudele leaves behind, President Kelly has chosen to temporarily delegate the responsibilities for interim VP of institutional advancement to Stacy Volnick. This will be in addition to Volnick’s current responsibilities as the vice president for administrative affairs and chief administrative officer.

David L. Kian is the vice president of the general counsel, he is the chief legal officer of the university. Kian will also take on the additional responsibilities of interim executive director of the FAU Foundation.

Kelly goes on to say that neither Volnick nor Kian will be a candidate for position of advancement vice president when the vacancy is filled next year. He anticipates that the review and restructuring process will take six months at the most.

“When completed, we will have a state-of-the-art advancement enterprise that has been uniquely tailored to maximize our assets, opportunities, and newly revised strategic plan,” he said. “His compelling combination will enable us to recruit an outstanding vice president for institutional advancement and executive director of the FAU Foundation, whom I will charge with developing the most aggressive and successful capital campaign in the University’s history.“

In an earlier message last week, President Kelly also announced the selection of a new vice president for research: Daniel C. Flynn. Flynn will begin in his new role on Jan. 5.

Dr. Flynn comes to South Florida from Delaware, where he is the associate dean for research at the University Of Delaware College Of Health Sciences. He previously held positions at the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, Pa., including associate dean for research and economic development.

He was appointed to numerous leadership roles at West Virginia University, including director of cancer cell biology research and graduate training programs at the university’s Health Science Center. He also was deputy director of the university’s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.

Flynn’s Resume

Kelly took a moment to credit Dr. John Newcomer for his performance as interim vice president of research over the last year. Newcomer will continue to serve FAU as executive vice dean of the College of Medicine.

Kelly will be continuing his visits throughout the various academic departments of FAU, accompanied by FAU Provost and VP of Academic Affairs Gary Perry.

Perry said the two have completed 48 visits thus far and Kelly plans to complete 60 by spring 2015 in keeping with FAU’s strategic plan.