David B. Porter, Ph.D., has been named Academic Vice President and Provost at Berea College. As Berea's chief academic officer, Dr. Porter will have responsibility for leading, planning, coordinating and evaluating the educational and academic support programs of the College, and, in the absence of the president, serve as the College's senior officer. His appointment is effective July 1.

After a sabbatical leave in 2001-2002, Dr. Stephen S. Boyce, current Vice President and Provost and a College faculty member since 1969 will resume full-time teaching as a professor in the Mathematics Department upon completion of his five-year term in the position.

Porter is currently Permanent Professor and Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Air Force Academy. A psychologist whose teaching and scholarship have focused on adolescent and adult learning, Porter has held a variety of teaching and educational administration positions during his 30-year Air Force career, including 17 years on the faculty of the Academy.

At the Air Force Academy, Porter served as Deputy Head for Academics from1989-92, and assumed his current position in 1995. During his tenure he has taught more than 25 different psychology and interdisciplinary courses and contributed to the Academy's first course critique system; collaborative, experiential and interdisciplinary learning programs; critical thinking enhancement; faculty development; and educational outcomes assessment. His assessment efforts at the Academy and with regional accreditation groups have helped establish the Academy and its department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership as a national leader in educational innovation and effectiveness and have identified Porter as a respected leader in this area.

As a researcher and scholar, Porter has published more than 60 articles in a wide range of professional journals and has presented talks at approximately 150 programs and workshops at regional and national conferences. He has served as a higher education consultant and program evaluator and is currently a consultant for the American Association of Higher Education and PEW Charitable Trusts on a project involving the development of institutional accreditation portfolios for six urban universities.

Born in Lexington, Ky., Porter is the son of a Berea College graduate, Homer Arthur Porter, Jr., a Salyersville, Ky., native. He is a 1971 distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy, where he earned a degree in Engineering Management. He holds a M.S. in industrial relations from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in Experimental Cognitive Psychology from Oxford University.

Active in the community, Porter was former president of All Souls Unitarian Church, has been a member of the Program Committee for the National Environmental Film Festival for three years and has been a leader of other organizations. He and his wife, Sharon Mahood Porter, have two children and two grandchildren.