Janie C. Park | |
---|---|
Born | Janie Clarice Fife July 9, 1946 El Paso, Texas |
Died | June 27, 2023 (aged 76) Billings, Montana |
Occupation(s) | Biologist, college professor, college president |
Janie Clarice Fife Park (July 9, 1946 – June 27, 2023) was an American biologist, college professor, and college administrator. She was president of Chadron State College from 2005 to 2012.
Janie Clarice Fife was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Jim K. Fife and Irene Fife. She trained as a nurse at Baylor University.[1] Later in life she earned a master's degree in immunology and completed doctoral studies in cell and molecular biology, both at Florida Institute of Technology.[2]
Park worked as a nurse as a young woman. She was an associate professor of biology and associate dean at Florida Institute of Technology for three years. She joined the faculty of Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University Billings) in 1993,[3] and taught biology there for three years before she was named provost and academic vice chancellor of the school. After nine years in leadership at Billings, she became president of Chadron State College in Nebraska in 2005.[4] Her tenure as president included the school's centennial,[5] and a wildfire that threatened the campus.[6] She retired in 2012.[7]
Though she was best known as a college administrator, Park had a substantial research career in biology, studying ototoxicity. While at Florida Tech, she was research director of Electron Microscopy Services, and research director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Aging.[3] She held a grant from the National Institutes of Health.[8] Her research was published in journals including American Journal of Otolaryngology,[9][10] Acta Oto-Laryngologica,[11] Florida Scientist,[12] ORL,[13] and Hearing Research.[14][15][16][17]
Fife married financial consultant Tom Park; they had two sons. She died in 2023, at the age of 76, in Billings, Montana.[18]