EAST LANSING, Mich. – David Wright has been named chairperson of the Michigan State University Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies. His three-year appointment became effective Aug. 15.

Wright has been serving as acting chairperson of the CARRS department since Sept. 2007 when previous chair Scott Witter stepped down to become chair of the MSU School of Planning, Design and Construction. Witter was the first to serve as chairperson of the CARRS department.

 “David Wright has shown tremendous leadership as acting chair of CARRS for the past two years,” said Jeffrey D. Armstrong, dean of the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “I look forward to continuing our work together as he and his faculty provide leadership to issues affecting the development and revitalization of sustainable communities.”

In addition to his role as chair, Wright is a professor of history of American science and technology and research ethics in the CARRS department and has been an expert consultant with the Office of Research Integrity for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 2001. He has served as a consultant for research integrity, regulatory compliance, accreditation and related issues for more than 20 higher education and research institutions in the past 10 years.

From 1993 to 2004, Wright was university intellectual integrity officer in the MSU Office of the President and assistant vice president for research ethics and standards. He has served in numerous administrative capacities at MSU, was a professor in the Lyman Briggs College and served briefly as a program officer with the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation.

Wright received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1967 and his doctoral degree in American studies from MSU in 1976.

He is a member of the Agricultural History Society, the History of Science Society and the Society for the History of Technology, and was president of the American Culture Association (1981–84). He has also served as director for the Clarion National Science Fiction Writers’ workshop and as a reviewer for the Rutgers University Press, the University of California Press and the MSU Press. He has written widely on issues of research management and agricultural history.

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