Kinchel Doerner, interim dean of graduate studies and research at Western Kentucky University, was announced in May as dean of the Graduate School.
Mary Kay Helling, associate vice president for Academic Affairs, has served as interim dean of the Graduate School for the past two years.
Doerner has been at Western Kentucky, located in Bowling Green, since 1996. He was an assistant professor in the biology department for six years, before moving to associate professor in 2002 and professor in 2010. In 2008, while serving as associate professor, he began splitting his teaching duties when he was named associate dean of graduate studies and research. In July 2011, he was appointed interim dean.
Prior to Western Kentucky University, Doerner spent four years at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. During his time at Virginia Commonwealth, he worked as a part-time faculty member in the department of biology at the University of Richmond during the 1995 spring semester.
From 1986 to 1992, Doerner was a graduate research assistant in the department of animal sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In summer 1989, he was a visiting scientist in the department of biochemistry at Cambridge Research Station in Cambridge, England.
Doerner earned his bachelor’s degree in the department of animal industries in 1986 at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He received both his master’s degree (1989) and doctorate (1992) in animal sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
