COP congratulates Dr. Brad Johnson who last week was named provost of Western Washington University, effective August 1, 2022. Dr. Johnson has been a professor of Physics at Western since 1997 and has served as Dean of the College of Science and Engineering for the past five years. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and a doctorate in Physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Among his many duties as provost, Johnson will serve as WWU’s chief academic officer, providing leadership for all academic-related initiatives and programs and ensuring their quality. He will report to WWU’s president, Dr. Sabah Randhawa.
One of our state’s three comprehensive universities, WWU was established as New Whatcom Normal School in 1893. More than 15,000 students enrolled during the fall 2021 term, 87% of whom are Washington residents. WWU offers more than 200 academic programs at its main campus in Bellingham – 90 miles north of Seattle – in addition to its Shannon Point Marine Center in Anacortes and locations in Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, Poulsbo, and online. The university is recognized as the highest-ranking public, master’s-granting university in the Pacific Northwest, according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, which also placed WWU 4th in a ranking of the best public schools in the West, a region stretching from Texas to the Pacific, and one of the best schools in the region for veterans.
Johnson succeeds Dr. Brent Carbajal, who has served as provost since 2013. With 25 years of service to WWU, Dr. Carbajal has also served as a professor of Spanish, chair of the university’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages, and dean of Western’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He has also played a critical role in a number of state-level initiatives as a member of COP’s Interinstitutional Committee of Academic Officers group, where he serves alongside provosts from the other five COP member campuses. Thank you, Provost Carbajal, for your distinguished service to WWU and our state.
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