USU Names Interim Dean for CNR as Nat Frazer Announces He Will Step Down

Utah State University has named Chris Luecke, department head of Watershed Sciences, as interim dean of the College of Natural Resources beginning Jan. 1. Luecke will replace Nat Frazer, who announced he is voluntarily stepping down as dean Dec. 31 and returning to the faculty.

Luecke will serve as interim dean for an 18-month period while the college engages in an extensive strategic planning process intended to define a clear pathway to continued success before conducting a national search for the next dean.

USU’s Executive Vice President and Provost Raymond T. Coward said Frazer deserves credit for leading the college during a time of major accomplishments that will have lasting effects on both the college and the university itself.

“We all thank Dean Frazer for his dedicated service and leadership during a time in which the college has continued to strengthen its standing among peer institutions and important constituents,” Coward said.

Frazer served as dean since 2006. During his time as dean, the college hired 20 new permanent faculty members, with eight of them in entirely new positions. CNR also strengthened its ties with state and federal agencies that manage natural resources, especially throughout the Great Basin. Frazer represented CNR and USU as chair of the Great Basin Research and Management Partnership’s Executive Committee and as a member of the steering committee of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Great Basin Landscape Conservation Commission. During Frazer’s service, the college established two undergraduate distance education degree programs, with new faculty positions in Moab and Price, and also developed an on-line professional Master’s of Natural Resources degree.

While serving as interim dean, Luecke will lead the strategic planning committee being formed and identify the path to continued success for the college. The CNR strategic planning committee will comprise faculty members from the College of Natural Resources as well as faculty colleagues from other academic units on campus who are active scientists exploring topics related to natural resources, the environment and ecology.

“Over the next four months, this committee will define the intellectual footprint for the future of this college and will present for the president’s review a clear plan that will ensure the continued strength of our academic offerings and programs of research in this important academic unit,” Coward said.

Coward thanked Luecke for his willingness to once again step into this important leadership role. Luecke served as interim dean of the college during the fall semester of 2005.

“After polling the CNR faculty, it was clear that Chris Luecke has the respect of a wide range of his colleagues and is the preferred choice of many colleagues to assume this important leadership role,” said Coward.

Luecke was head of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife from 2000-2002 and then head of the newly formed Department of Watershed Sciences from 2002 to the present. He joined the faculty in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at USU in 1988 where he established research and teaching programs in fish ecology.

Along with his administrative appointments, Luecke has maintained an active and productive program of research at the Long-Term Ecological Research site at Toolik Lake in arctic Alaska maintained by the National Science Foundation and continues research on reservoir fishes in Utah. Luecke received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington in 1986.

Luecke said he looks forward to leading the college through the process of strategic planning and the implementation of new initiatives.

“The faculty, staff and students in the college are an outstanding collection of young scientists,” he said. “I am honored to serve as their leader during this dynamic time for the environmental sciences and for the management of our natural resources.”

Related link:

USU College of Natural Resources

Writer and Contact: Tim Vitale, 435-797-1356, tim.vitale@usu.edu