John Bower Hired for One-Year Term as Dean of Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at WWU

John Bower has been hired for a one-year, fixed-term term appointment as Dean of Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University, Provost Brent Carbajal announced today.

Bower will start in his new job on Aug. 10, 2020. He follows Fairhaven College Dean Jack Herring, who will be serving in a new role at Western as vice provost for Undergraduate Education.

“I’m very pleased that Dr. Bower has agreed to serve Fairhaven College and Western in this capacity. He has very well-rounded faculty leadership experience, an excellent record of collaboration, and is a compassionate and caring teacher/mentor. I look forward to the perspective Dr. Bower will bring to university discussions and to working with him to serve Fairhaven College students, staff, and faculty,” Carbajal said.

Bower is a professor at Fairhaven College.

“I am excited to serve as Fairhaven College Dean for the 2020-21 academic year. I look forward to working collaboratively with colleagues at Fairhaven and across campus to not only meet the challenges of the current year, but to usher in a new era in Fairhaven’s distinguished history,” Bower said. “Fairhaven’s long proven ability to provide a transformative, inquiry-based, and student-centered educational experience with an emphasis on social, economic, and environmental justice strongly positions our students to be change makers who engage in creative solutions to local, national, and global challenges. I’m looking forward to the year ahead!”

Bower has spent 40 years studying the natural world. Getting his start as a birdwatcher, his research includes acoustic communication in bowhead whales and song sparrows, foraging competition between hummingbird species on a remote Chilean island, and the population ecology of Pacific Northwest marine birds. He has taught a wide variety of courses at Fairhaven, including “Environmental Photography,” “The Music and Science of Natural Sound,” “The Human-Animal Connection,” “Evolutionary Medicine,” and “The Folk Music Experience.”

Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies cultivates student responsibility for designing and assessing learning through interdisciplinary inquiry, creativity and scholarship. For more information about the college see: https://fairhaven.wwu.edu/