Oklahoma City University Announces New Arts and Sciences Dean

Oklahoma City University Announces New Arts and Sciences Dean

Oklahoma City University has named Mark Y.A. Davies dean of the Petree College of Arts and Sciences, OCU President Tom McDaniel announced today. Davies will take over as dean July 1, 2009.

OCU conducted a year-long, nationwide search for the new arts and sciences dean. The search produced a pool of nearly 50 qualified candidates, of which eight were interviewed by phone and four were invited to campus for a more extensive interview process.

“Dr. Davies was a great student at OCU and went on to study at other prestigious universities in graduate and post graduate work,” McDaniel said. “He has done an excellent job in his current position. To have a national search that results in finding the best candidate on our campus is an indication of the quality that we all value here. Mark, his wife, Kristin, and their two daughters are already an important part of the OCU family and we look forward to having his leadership for many years to come.”

Davies has served as dean of Oklahoma City University’s Wimberly School of Religion since April 2002, and he will continue to lead that school. He has taught at OCU since 1994 and was chairman of OCU’s philosophy department from 1997 to 2000. He served as an associate dean for the university’s College of Arts and Sciences before moving over to the school of religion.

Davies holds a Ph.D. in social ethics from Boston University, a Master of Divinity from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy/religion from OCU. He holds a certificate in ecumenical studies from the University of Geneva and completed an Emory/Gottingen Exchange Fellowship at Gottingen University in Germany. Davies has served as a visiting scholar at Wesley House in Cambridge, England, and studied at Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in India.