Full House

Randall O'Brien, executive vice president and provost at Baylor, announced the appointments of Lee C. Nordt as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Jon M. Engelhardt as dean of the School of Education. 
Nordt, an associate professor of geology who served as the college's interim dean for two years, started his duties in April.
"We must maintain and strengthen our core curriculum and important undergraduate programs and continue to expand our graduate programs in strategic areas," Nordt said. "I look forward to working with the students, faculty and staff developing a vision for the future that builds upon our solid academic and Christian foundation."
An expert in climate change, Nordt and a colleague recently created the first and only comprehensive temperature record for the Great Plains dating back 12,000 years. His other research areas include the global soil carbon cycle, landscape evolution and the geology of archaeological sites in Israel, Mexico and Peru. He has published dozens of papers on each of these subjects and lectures around the world.
Nordt earned three degrees--his bachelor's, master's and doctorate--from Texas A&M University. He worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and at Texas A&M before joining the Baylor faculty as an associate professor of geology in 1996. He continues to teach in the geology department. 
A Fellow of the Geological Society of America, Nordt has edited a special volume of the journal Geoderma, was section editor for the book Encyclopedia of Soils, edits for the Glossary of Geologic Terms and serves on the editorial board of the journal Geology and Geoarchaeology. He is a member of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society of North America, and served as the Baylor delegate to the National Council for Environmental Deans and Directors. 
A visionary academic leader, researcher and consensus builder in the education field, Engelhardt began his term on July 15.
"I am enormously pleased and honored to become part of Baylor University and its School of Education," Engelhardt said. "Broadly respected for its strong programs in educator preparation and in health and human performance, the School is poised to be recognized as world-class."
Engelhardt had previously served as dean of Wichita State's College of Education since 1997. He also served as a professor of curriculum and instruction and on WSU's graduate faculty.
Engelhardt was executive director and dean of The Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona University from 1992-97, and dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at El Paso from 1988-92. From 1974-87, he served in several capacities at Arizona State University.
Engelhardt received his bachelor's degree cum laude in elementary education in 1967 and a master's degree summa cum laude in elementary education in 1969, both from Arizona State. He earned his doctorate in mathematics education from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972. He began his education career as a middle school math teacher in Tempe, Ariz., and has taught elementary math education at the university level since 1972.
Engelhardt is the author of four books and numerous articles on teacher education issues. He has successfully directed/co-directed several funding projects, the largest of which was a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation in 1989 that established a Comprehensive Regional Center for Minorities in Math and Science at UT-El Paso.