UMaine Announces the Appointment of Three New Deans

Three new deans recently joined the University of Maine. Norm O’Reilly is dean of the Graduate School of Business, Diane Rowland was named dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture, and Ellen Weinauer will join UMaine as dean of the Honors College.  

O’Reilly is a former professor and assistant dean at the University of Guelph, anda leading scholar in the business of sports. Prior to joining UMaine, he served as assistant dean of executive programs in Guelph’s Gordon S. Lang School of Business & Economics. Before that, he chaired the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University. 

O’Reilly takes on a position previously held by Dean J. Michael Weber, who left UMaine in 2020. Dr. Faye Gilbert, Executive Dean of the Maine Business School, had been serving as interim dean of the graduate program prior to O’Reilly’s appointment.

Rowland comes to UMaine from the University of Florida, where she was professor of crop physiology and department chair. A graduate of Orono High School, she worked as a research plant physiologist and lead scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Georgia before joining the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. 

Rowland takes the position held by interim dean Mario Teisl.

Weinauer served as dean of the Honors College at the University of Southern Mississippi from 2014 – 2021, and led it through significant curriculum and admissions changes. Prior to that, she directed Interdisciplinary Studies, Graduate Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is a two-time recipient of the University of Southern Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Award and received a Mississippi Humanities Council Teaching Award.