Dean Search

Four finalists have been invited to campus to interview for the position of Dean of the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration.

The Dean will work closely with faculty, staff, students, university leadership, alumni, and community and industry partners to advance the College’s academic mission and build on its strengths and continued growth. The anticipated starting date of the new Dean will be January 1, 2027, or as soon as reasonable thereafter.

Campus participation is an important part of the search process. We encourage faculty, staff, students, and other members of the UND community to participate in the finalist visits and share their feedback.

Visit dates, times, locations, and additional information about each finalist can be found below.

Finalists

Jacquelyn Rees Ulmer

Jackie Rees Ulmer is a Professor of Analytics and Information Systems and former Dean of the College of Business at Ohio University. Previously, she served the Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University in various administrative roles, including Associate Dean and Department Chair. She was a full professor with tenure and held the Union Pacific Professorship in Information Systems. Before joining Iowa State, she was a tenured faculty member in the Management Information Systems area in the Krannert School of Management (now the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business) at Purdue University for 17 years. Her research focus is in Cybersecurity Risk Management and analytics, particularly machine learning models. Her research has been published in journals such as Information Systems Research (ISR), Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ), Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS), ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (ACM-TMIS), Decision Sciences (DS), Decision Support Systems (DSS), European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), and several other outlets. Her teaching interests include Introduction to Programming, Database Management Systems, Information Security Management, Business Analytics, and Strategic Use of Information Systems. She serves on several boards of directors and is an active peer reviewer and committee member for AACSB.

Although she is an Omaha, NE native, her doctorate and bachelor’s degrees are in Decision and Information Sciences from the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida.

Interview Schedule

Melissa Gruys

Melissa L. Gruys, Ph.D., SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is a Professor of Management at Cleveland State University's Monte Ahuja College of Business. Throughout more than 25 years in higher education, she has served in faculty and administrative roles at Cleveland State University, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Wright State University, and  Washington State University Vancouver. Across a decade as dean of AACSB-accredited business schools at Cleveland State University (2023–2026) and Purdue University Fort Wayne (2016–2023), she raised more than $8 million in philanthropic support, led strategic planning and successful AACSB accreditation reviews, drove enrollment growth, created innovative academic programs, cultivated a collaborative and high-retention culture, built industry partnerships, and managed college-based centers serving thousands of students and hundreds of regional businesses.

Dr. Gruys holds national leadership roles in business education and accreditation, currently serving on AACSB's Eligibility Review Committee, as an AACSB Peer Review Team Chair and Team Member, and as the Past President of the MidAmerican Business Deans Association.

A first-generation college graduate, Dr. Gruys is deeply committed to expanding educational opportunity, supporting student success, and preparing graduates for leadership in business and public service. She earned her Ph.D. in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota and her B.A. from the University of Minnesota Morris. Recognized with numerous teaching, research, and leadership honors, she has  taught more than 4,500 students; published over twenty peer-reviewed articles, including ten in ABDC A*/A  journals such as Journal of Management and Journal of Applied Psychology; and accumulated nearly 4,000 citations.

Interview Schedule

Lorenzo Patelli

Lorenzo Patelli is Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Accounting at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, where he oversees faculty affairs and graduate programs. He led the college's successful 2024 AACSB reaccreditation and restructured college funds to deliver a 10% average raise in teaching faculty salaries. He co-chaired the Provost's Academic Affairs Goal Committee on preparing students to lead in an AI-transformed workforce and established the college's AI Faculty Task Force. Passionate about bridging academic knowledge and industry expertise, he spearheaded the college's industry integration strategy to strengthen corporate engagement, experiential learning, and career outcomes. He also created Class@Work, a program that moves MBA classes directly into corporate offices around the Denver metro area. He serves on the Global Board of Directors of the Institute of Management Accountants and chairs its Audit Subcommittee. He previously served as Interim Director of the School of Accountancy and as Director of the Institute for Enterprise Ethics.

His research on performance measurement, corporate governance, and ethics appears in Management Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Corporate Governance: An International Review, and AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory. He has been recognized with several teaching awards, including the C. Thomas Howard Innovative Teacher Award. Before joining the University of Denver, he held faculty appointments at Benedictine College and Erasmus University Rotterdam. He earned his Ph.D. from Bocconi University and was a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California. Away from campus, he enjoys skiing, hiking, and rock climbing.

Interview Schedule

Patrick O'Neill

Patrick O’Neill, Ph.D. is currently serving as the Interim Dean of the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration at UND. He has been in this role since July 2025. He has spent his entire academic career at UND. After earning a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston College, he joined UND as a tenure-track assistant professor of economics. Subsequently, he was tenured and promoted to associate professor, and then full professor. As a faculty member, he discovered his passion was teaching students and creating an active learning environment. This earned him a university-level individual excellence in teaching award.

After promotion to full professor, his leadership journey began. His prior leadership positions include Department Chair, MBA Director, and Associate Dean. He has served in many university leadership roles, most notably as one of three team leaders for an HLC reaccreditation effort.

He is a collaborative leader who creates a positive culture for the Nistler community, with particular emphasis on student interactions and career readiness. Dr. O’Neill strategically leads the efforts to recruit top faculty and staff talent, mentors college leadership, and partners with the college development officers to foster alumni relations. In addition, he oversees new program development, the college budget, and manages record college enrollment growth. He supports team activities which cultivate continuous improvement, such as maintaining various accreditations (AACSB, NASPAA, and SBDC), elevating speaker series, and engaging with college advisory council members. He enjoys working with leaders across campus to align goals of Nistler with the broader campus.

He is married, has two children, and lives in Grand Forks.

Interview Schedule

Search Committee 

Committee Charge

The search committee is charged with conducting the search, evaluating candidates, conducting initial interviews, hosting finalists, and submitting an unranked list of acceptable candidates to the provost. 

The committee, with assistance from the executive search firm, will ensure that all stakeholder groups have the opportunity to participate in the process and provide feedback on the finalists. That feedback will be documented, preserved, used by the committee in its deliberations, and included in the final report to the provost.

Search Timeline

About the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration

The Nistler CoBPA is the largest school of business in North Dakota, serving over 2,100 undergraduate and graduate students. Committed to providing educational and social opportunities to all its students, the College offers more than 25 student clubs and organizations. Students can also take advantage of many cooperative employment and internship programs throughout the year. The College is extremely proud of its students, alumni, and nationally accredited programs, as well as its first-class facilities, notably the College’s home in Nistler Hall, which opened its doors in 2022 and is one of the signature buildings on a vibrant, modern, growing campus.

The Nistler CoBPA is the first accredited business college in North Dakota and holds accreditation through AACSB International, which establishes standards to promote the highest levels of educational quality. The Nistler CoBPA has three departments and two schools. These academic departments and schools offer a wide variety of academic programs, including 17 undergraduate programs, 4 graduate programs, 14 undergraduate minors, and  9 certificate programs.

• Herr School of Accountancy
• Middleton School of Entrepreneurship & Management
• Fransen Department of Real Estate, Economics & Finance
• Department of Marketing
• Department of Political Science & Public Administration

The Nistler College of Business & Public Administration is dedicated to preparing students for the next generation of business and public leadership. The College’s approach to offering a professional education for undergraduate students emphasizes experiential learning and includes:

• A core of business with essential studies in arts, sciences, and humanities
• A common body of knowledge in business and government
• Specialized courses which provide a greater depth of understanding of business and/or public administration/political science

Among the many opportunities students have to enhance their coursework through high-impact learning practices are several experiential learning opportunities including signature speaker series and symposiums; real-world opportunities such as the Student Managed Investment Fund, which allows students to manage and administer an over $2 million investment portfolio; and the Dakota Venture Group, which gives students the opportunity to review and fund entrepreneurial business ventures; along with study abroad and internship opportunities the Pancratz Career Development Center also works with students to define their professional goals, provides them with personalized, progressive professional development, and cultivates mutually beneficial partnerships with employers and alumni, all in order to help students better transition to successful careers after graduation.

UND and the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration are the hosts of three federally funded business assistance and resource programs for the state of North Dakota. The college’s UND Center for Business Engagement & Development is the administrative home of the ND Small Business Development Centers, the ND APEX Accelerator, and the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Dakotas (serving ND & SD). Through these outreach programs, the network provides services to more than 2,500 individuals and businesses annually throughout the entire state. By design, they offer support in areas that are commonly taught subjects by the host institution. Students engaging with the Center’s programs work on real-world applications and gain practical insight and experience with the disciplines that they are studying through service and experiential learning. Collaboration creates mutually beneficial outcomes for faculty and the programs. A strong relationship between these programs and the institution helps spark the entrepreneurship conversation on campus and builds stronger bonds between the campus and the community, leveraging federal, state, and higher education resources to assist entrepreneurs and small businesses and drive direct economic development and growth.