ISSUED: 23 April 2021
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University President Mary J.C. Hendrix has announced Dr. Ben Martz, dean, College of Business and chair, Department of Business Administration, will serve as interim vice president for Academic Affairs and provost while the university searches for a candidate to fill the position on a permanent basis.
Martz will begin the interim position June 1. He replaces Dr. Scott Beard, who suddenly died in March. Dr. Kathleen Reid, associate dean, College of Business, and chair, Department of Economics and Finance, will serve as interim dean for the College of Business.
“The leadership and vision of Dr. Ben Martz and Dr. Kathleen Reid will provide essential stability to advance our institutional mission,” said Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix, Shepherd’s president. “I am profoundly grateful for their willingness to accept the additional responsibility and serve in these key leadership roles.”
Martz earned a B.B.A. in marketing from the College of William & Mary and an M.S. in management information systems and a Ph.D. in business from the University of Arizona. At Shepherd, he has worked with the alumni-led Business 2020 initiative, a public-private partnership that raised $660,000 to revitalize Shepherd’s business program and develop a College of Business. Martz serves as the director of the Shepherd Entrepreneurship and Research Corporation (SERC), a nonprofit organization with a mission of helping facilitate research, innovation, and entrepreneurship that includes oversight of the Agricultural Innovation Center at Tabler Farm, Stubblefield Institute, and Popodicon rentals.
Reid received her B.A. in mathematics from SUNY Plattsburgh and her Ph.D. in economics from Pennsylvania State University. She has served as chair of the Department of Economics since 1990, leading the change from the Department of Economics to the Department of Economics and Finance and helping develop a concentration in financial economics. She has been associate dean of the College of Business since August 2018. Reid prepared the reaffirmation of accreditation self-study and led the College of Business through a successful site visit in February of 2020. The IACBE accreditation has been approved through 2027. The leadership required for this successful reaffirmation process demonstrates her level of understanding, both academic and professional, to be successful in this role.
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