SIOUX FALLS, S.D. ― Barry Dunn, the dean of South Dakota State University’s College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, was named the school’s 20th president on Monday.
Kathryn Johnson, the South Dakota Board of Regents member who chaired the presidential search committee, said Dunn is a tested and consistently successful leader with a relevant vision for SDSU that’s bolstered by his many contacts.
“We know that he’s already got in place, starting today, that strong team committed to a common purpose of forwarding SDSU,” Johnson said during a news conference at the Brookings university.
Dunn is set to replace David Chicoine, who became president in 2007 and announced in December he would step down to teach in the university’s economics department.
Dunn, a Todd County rancher, earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from South Dakota State in 1975. He first worked in Brookings as an SDSU Extension livestock specialist and assistant professor in the animal and range science department.
He returned to SDSU in 2010 after spending six years at Texas A&M University-Kingsville as executive director of the King Ranch Institute for Range Management. In his current position, he administers a $78 million annual budget that includes more than $20 million in grant and contract awards, along with fundraising and development.
“I understand this university’s wonderful historic past, and I can see its rich potential,” he said.
