Ryan Zerr named associate vice president for Strategy & Implementation at UND

Currently a professor, department chair and associate dean in the College of Arts & Sciences, Zerr has extensive experience in shared governance at UND

Ryan Zerr, a longtime professor, department chair and associate dean at UND and former University Senate chair, has been appointed to the position of associate vice president for Strategy & Implementation at the University.

In this position, Zerr will serve as the chief administrator charged with implementing, tracking, and reporting on UND LEADS, the University’s new strategic plan. He also will help lead and support other institutional efforts to integrate strategic planning across the institution.

The appointment was made by UND President Andrew Armacost.

“I am thrilled that Ryan Zerr will fill this important new role on our campus,” Armacost said. “He has been an extraordinary leader who has connected many parts of UND. In addition to his role as department chair and associate dean, Ryan has been instrumental in key initiatives, including accreditation and Essential Studies. These experiences make him an ideal fit for the important role of leading and implementing the UND LEADS strategic plan.”

Zerr expressed his enthusiasm for taking on this new assignment at UND.

“I am very excited to be able to serve the institution in this new role,” he said. “The UND LEADS strategic plan represents the hard work and input of hundreds of individuals on and off campus, and it will be an honor to help turn their ideas and aspirations for the institution into next steps. Jim Mochoruk and Lynette Krenelka, who co-chaired the planning committee, deserve particular credit for their leadership in developing UND LEADS, and my hope is that through this new role, I can do credit to the work they started.

“I am also incredibly grateful to President Armacost for giving me this opportunity to contribute to UND’s future direction,” Zerr said.

In addition to his leadership role with the Strategic Plan, Zerr also will work with UND’s director of Institutional Effectiveness to maintain the University’s strong standing with the Higher Learning Commission — the institutional accreditor for colleges and universities in the central United States — and related accrediting bodies.

Zerr will start in his new position sometime this summer.

Zerr is a professor of mathematics at UND, where he has served as a faculty member for the past 20 years. His experience in university shared governance stretches from the departmental to the institutional level. Besides serving as the chair of the UND University Senate, he has chaired or co-chaired multiple university-wide committees and working groups.

His present shared governance work includes membership on the University Senate, and he is a member of the institutional reaccreditation executive committee. He is currently the chair of the Department of Theatre Arts; in a Q&A published a week ago, UND Today talked with Zerr about the fascinating circumstances that led a math professor to become the University’s Theatre Arts chair.

Currently, Zerr also serves as an associate dean in the UND College of Arts & Sciences. He has previously served as the director of Essential Studies and as associate chair within the Department of Mathematics.

Zerr earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Iowa State University. He also holds an M.S. in Mathematics and a B.S. in Meteorological Studies from UND.