Finney named associate dean of Virginia Tech's College of Science

Jack W. Finney, professor of psychology, has been appointed associate dean for administrative and faculty affairs for the College of Science at Virginia Tech.

Finney has been chair of the psychology department since 1996 when it was part of the university’s former College of Arts and Sciences.

“Jack has provided leadership for significant changes within the psychology program, resulting in many crucial improvements within that department,” said Lay Nam Chang, dean of the College of Science. The Ph.D. program in clinical psychology is consistently ranked among the top 40 such programs in the United States and Canada, and the department’s undergraduate program has been recognized as a University Exemplary Department for effectively linking research with teaching.

“With experience in an academic administrative capacity and demonstrated expertise in strategic decision-making, Jack will be an invaluable member of the dean’s staff as we continue to position the college to reach its stated goal of preeminence nationally and internationally,” Chang said.

In his role as associate dean, Finney will manage the planning and projections for academic programs within the college and will work closely with faculty, department leaders, and university administration in identifying and advancing the interests and welfare of the faculty at all levels.

Finney joined the faculty at Virginia Tech as assistant professor in 1987 and was made full professor in 1998. Before coming to Virginia Tech, he was assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He has two master’s degrees; one from West Virginia University and one from the University of Kansas, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. He is a fellow in the American Psychological Association and a member of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the Association for Behavior Analysis, and the Association for Psychological Science.

The College of Science at Virginia Tech gives students a comprehensive foundation in the scientific method. Outstanding faculty members teach courses and conduct research in biology, chemistry, economics, geosciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and statistics. The college is dedicated to fostering a research intensive environment and offers programs in many cutting edge areas, including those in nanotechnology, biological sciences, information theory and science, and supports the university’s research initiatives through the Institute for Critical Technologies and Applied Sciences, and the Institute for Biomedical and Public Health Sciences. The college of Science also houses programs in pre-medicine and intellectual properties law.