WSU administrators have picked the new Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture dean, a Kansas State University professor who will begin her new job here in July.

Mary Rezac will succeed Interim Dean Donald Bender, who took over the position in August after professor Candis Claiborn decided to return to her faculty position following 10 years as dean, according to a WSU news release.

Rezac is a chemical engineering professor and director of the Major Grant Initiatives in the College of Engineering at KSU. She has a history of industry partnership in supporting education and research programs, and will attempt to build those types of collaborations at WSU, according to the release.

“The Voiland College is well positioned to support knowledge-based companies across the state from aerospace to power systems to information technology,” Rezac stated in the release.

Before she began working at KSU, Rezac was an associate professor and served in several administrative positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Chemical Engineering, according to the release.

While at KSU, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, Rezac worked as an associate professor. Before, she was promoted to chemical engineering department head, where she served from 2004 to 2009.

According to the release, Rezac also served as the founding director of the university’s Center for Sustainable Energy from 2007 to 2015, as well as KSU’s interim associate vice president for research from July 2015 to Jan. 2017.

Reporting by Dennis Farrell