Lemuel Watson, chair of NIU’s Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education since 2003, has been named the College of Education’s acting associate dean, according to an NIU press release.

Watson is stepping in for Diane Jackman, who will become dean of Eastern Illinois University’s College of Education and Professional Studies before the end of the month.

“I’m so excited. There are lots of exciting things going on in the College of Education, and I’m looking forward to seeing the field in a totally different way,” Watson said.

A search for a permanent replacement associate dean will begin this fall, said current Dean Chris Sorensen, and a successor should start work in the fall semester of 2007.

Watson, who is placing his department in the “capable hands” of acting chair Fran Giordano, said he is likely to apply for the associate dean’s job. Sorensen said she hopes to see his name among the applicants.

“Most everyone who’s interacted with Lemuel would say he’s just a natural leader,” Sorensen said. “One of the things I told him that I’ve noted about him is that it’s rare to find in any person the ability to see the big picture and, at the same time, attend to the details. He’s good at both.”

Watson’s career in higher education began in the office of the chancellor at Indiana University, where he conducted faculty development and assessment.

He took his first faculty position at Illinois State University after earning his doctorate, and later expanded his resume as a community college dean and by building graduate programs in educational leadership at Clemson University.