Millsaps College has announced that Dr. Stephanie Rolph has agreed to serve as interim provost and Dr. Stan Galicki will serve as interim associate provost, beginning in the summer of 2023. Rolph and Galicki will take on these new roles as the college enters a time of presidential transition in the coming months. The role of provost is traditionally defined as the chief academic officer of an institution of higher learning.
Dr. Rob Pearigen, president of Millsaps, will step down at the end of May to assume the role of vice chancellor and president at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. Dr. Keith Dunn, provost and dean of Millsaps, will begin serving as interim president of the college on June 1.
“I could not ask for better student-focused leaders with whom to work as we navigate the opportunities of the next year,” said Dunn. “Both Dr. Rolph and Dr. Galicki were deeply involved in the development of the college’s new strategic plan, and their long service and dedication to Millsaps will continue in these new roles. I am personally grateful to them both, for their service as colleagues and friends, and I know they will continue their extraordinary leadership as we focus on the exciting work that lies ahead.”
Rolph is a native of Jackson and a 1999 graduate of Millsaps, earning her degree in history. She earned her master’s and doctorate degrees at Mississippi State University, specializing in the history of the American South. She returned to Millsaps in 2010, and quickly took on expanded roles outside the classroom including overseeing the college’s efforts in Community Engaged Learning. She served as academic director of the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP) and has most recently supported Millsaps in her work as executive director of strategic initiatives.
“Millsaps has been personally and professionally transformative for me,” said Rolph. “It has been a distinct privilege to be so centrally connected to the future vision of the college through my responsibilities with the strategic plan. I’m honored to step into this interim role and collaborate with all of our stakeholders—internal and external—as we renew and deepen our shared commitment to enrollment growth, student success and academic excellence. As a native Jacksonian, a graduate of this institution and a historian of this state, I feel confident in stating, Millsaps matters.”
A professor of geology, Galicki worked as a petroleum geologist before beginning his academic career at Millsaps in 1993. He teaches courses in geology and the environmental fields, including hydrogeology, mineralogy and petrology, subsurface mapping and Geographic Information Systems. He routinely teaches geology field courses in Yellowstone National Park, the Pacific Northwest, and the Appalachians. He has most recently served as associate dean of sciences.
“My 31-year journey at Millsaps started out at the instructor level,” Galicki said. “This opportunity leaves me, at once, immensely humbled, incredibly excited, and slightly apprehensive. It is a big step. Dr. Rolph and I have collaborated on Academic Council for the past four years, and I have tremendous respect for her. I am confident we will continue to work well together to make this coming year a positive one for Millsaps.”