Terry Sharik Appointed Dean of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Terry Sharik has been appointed dean of Michigan Tech’s School of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences (SFRES). He will take the reins on July 1, 2012, after Peg Gale, SFRES dean since March 2004, retires.

It’s a homecoming for Sharik, who taught in the School of Forestry and Wood Products from 1986 to 1993. While at Michigan Tech, he was president of the University Senate and associate director of the Lake Superior Ecosystem Research Center. Since 1993, he has been a professor of forest ecology at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. At Utah State, Sharik served as head of the Departments of Forest Resources and Environment and Society.

"Terry’s wide range of experience was evident throughout the interview process,” said Professor Blair Orr, who chaired the search committee for the new Forestry dean. “He has an understanding of coursework and accreditation, not only of how it works today, but also insight into where it will be tomorrow. He has worked on large collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects and has a vision of how the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science can partner with others on campus to build stronger and more effective research programs."

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Forestry and Wildlife Management at West Virginia University, and a Master of Forestry and a PhD in Forest Recreation and Forest Botany, respectively, from the University of Michigan, Sharik taught at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Oberlin College, and Virginia Tech, as well as Michigan Tech and Utah State. He was also employed as an environmental consultant in the corporate sector for a brief period.

He was named a University Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the University of Michigan and Distinguished Teacher of the Year at Michigan Tech.

Sharik is co-founder of the Biennial Conferences on University Education in Natural Resources and the North American Forest Ecology Workshops. He remains deeply involved in educational reform in natural resources at the national and global levels through National Association of University Forest Resources programs. He is a fellow of the Society of American Foresters.

In 2005, Sharik helped establish the Gombe School of Environment and Society (GOSESO) in Tanzania, East Africa. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Forestry. He serves as chair of the GOSESO-USA board and the Sustainable Forests Partnership.

“I am thrilled and honored to be the next dean of Michigan Tech’s School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, and I hope that together, the faculty, staff, students and I can make some really great things happen. The key word is ‘together,’ as I feel strongly about being part of a “we” culture. Any vision I might have for the school will ultimately be a collective vision. My journey in academic leadership began at Michigan Tech, and having been gone for nearly two decades, I very much look forward to returning and giving back some of what I have learned and experienced since then.”

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.