VITA: Dr. Nancy L. Mergler

 Education:

Administrative Experience:

Senior Vice President & Provost, University of Oklahoma - Norman Campus, November 1996 - present.

Interim Senior Vice President & Provost, University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus, January 1995 - October 1996.

In this position I have primary responsibility to the President of the University and the OU Board of Regents; and serve as the chief academic and administrative officer of the Norman Campus. The Senior VP & Provost has responsibility for intellectual standards; institutional planning and budgeting; and the recruitment; retention and development of faculty and students. Other responsibilities include program development and review, enrollment management, academic policies and procedures, and personnel actions involving faculty, students, and academic support staff.

In this position, I have implemented a ten year plan for increasing library resources, have overseen the recruitment and hiring of over 80 endowed chair and professorship positions, added over fifty additional tenured or tenure track faculty on the Norman Campus, tripled the funding of the general education budget, and implemented higher admission standards for undergraduates. Additional information regarding areas of oversight may be obtained from the Senior Vice President & Provost website at http://www.ou.edu/provost.

Director, University of Oklahoma Honors Program, July 1987 - October 1996.

As Director of the Honors Program, I had primary responsibility for recruiting and serving honors students at the University of Oklahoma during a time of strategic growth of the program. This included developing innovative curricular and extra-curricular academic programs utilizing faculty from throughout the University and developing a tradition of honors housing. The Honors director was directly responsible to the Senior Vice President & Provost of the University; and was a member of the OU Deans' Council. The director oversaw an Assistant Director (faculty position), an Honors Academic Advisor, an office staff, a faculty and student Honors Council, and 47 faculty Honors Coordinators representing all academic units in the university. The Honors Program developed and administered honors courses with various colleges and the director worked closely with academic Deans and student organizations across all the colleges in the University.

Chair, OU SCHOLARS selection committee, July 1989 - Ocotber 1996.

The OU SCHOLARS Program is the major source of talent-based scholarships for direct-from-high school freshmen at OU. The number of students funded tripled from Fall 1987 to Fall 1993. During my administration of the program, I designated a faculty review committee, implemented a highly automated, criteria-based system of scholarship offers, and have worked closely with the OU Enrollment Management Board to insure that we get all possible recruitment value from this scholarship program. OU continues to have a 85-90% retention rate for these freshmen, that includes at least 30% minority students each year.

Administrative Grants obtained:

8/1/89 - 7/31/91 "Intellectual Centering" grant from Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to provide Honors Freshmen with pre-semester academic seminars to facilitate their transition into the university community; $92,314.

9/30/87 "Faculty Honors Retreat"; grant from the Portz Fund of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) to allow a faculty/student retreat to develop interdisciplinary courses; $300.

Administrative Honors, Affiliations, Service:

* April 1999 University of Oklahoma Student Association Award to Outstanding Administrator.
* Feb 1995 Named Outstanding Freshman Advocate by The National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience
* 1994-1995 Co-chair, President's Taskforce for Reinvigorating the Undergraduate Experience
* 1994-1997 Executive Committee - College of Liberal Studies
* 1992-1993 Search committee for Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs - Recruitment Services.
* 1991- OU Enrollment Management Board, transfer student & minority concerns subcommittees.
* 1987- OU Dean's Council.
* 1987- Member, National Collegiate Honors Council.
* 1991-1992 Search committee for Provost & Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs.
* 1990-1991 Vice President of the Great Plains Regional Honors Council.
* 1990 University of Oklahoma Student Association Award to Outstanding Administrator.
* 1990 Search committee for Assistant Dean of Arts & Sciences.
* Oct 1989 Invited Speaker at Lewis & Clark College for a 2 day faculty workshop on "The institutional context of interdisciplinary study in science, technology, and value".
* 1987-1992 Executive Committee - College of Liberal Studies, (Chair 1991-92).
* 1987-1990 Executive Committee - College of Arts & Sciences.
* 1987-1989 Search committee for Vice President of University Affairs.

Academic Experience:

Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, 1995-present;

Associate Professor, 1984 - 1994.

Assistant Professor, 1979 -1983.

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Washington College, 1976-79. Primary responsibility for graduate and undergraduate course offerings in developmental and cognitive psychology.

Teaching Assistant, Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, 1973-75. Teaching areas: Psychology of maturity and old age, child development.

Academic Honors:

Psychology Department nomination for AMOCO Foundation Good Teaching Award, 1986
Junior Faculty Summer Research Fellowship, University of Oklahoma, 1980
Syracuse University Fellow, 1975-1976
Syracuse All-University Gerontology Center Trainee, 1972-1974

Academic Affiliations:

Big 12 Provosts, since 1995.
Phi Kappa Phi, interdisciplinary academic honorary, member since 1990
American Psychological Association, member since 1973, divisions 7 & 20
Eastern Psychological Association, member since 1977
Gerontological Society, member since 1973
Southwestern Psychological Association, member since 1980
Oklahoma Psychological Association, member since 1980
Maryland Consortium for Gerontology in Higher Education
Washington College representative, 1976-79

Publications:

Schleifer, R., Davis, R.C., & Mergler, N.L. (1992) Culture and Cognition: The Boundaries of Literary and Scientific Inquiry. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

Mergler, N.L. & Schleifer, R. (1991). Cognition and narration: Binary structures, semiotics, and cognitive science. New Orleans Review, 17, 64-75.

Gregory, M.E., & Mergler, N.L. (1990). Metaphor comprehension: In search of literal truth, possible sense, and metaphoricity. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 5, 151-173.

Harris, J. F., Durso, F.T., Mergler, N.L., & Jones, S.K. (1990). The effect of knowledge on judgements of frequency of occurrence. Cognitive Development, 5, 223-233.

Gregory, M. E., Mergler, N. L., Durso, F. T., & Zandi, T. (1988). Cognitive Reality Monitoring in Adulthood. Educational Gerontology, 14, 1-13.

Mergler, N. L., & Schleifer, R. (1985). The plain sense of things: Violence and the discourse of the aged. Semiotica, 54, 177-199.

Mergler, N. L., Faust, M., & Goldstein, M. D. (1985). Storytelling as an age-dependent skill: Oral recall or orally presented stories. International Journal of Aging, and Human Development, 20, 205-229.

Mergler, N. L., & Goldstein, M. D. (1983). Why are there old people: Senescence as biological and cultural preparedness for the transmission of information. Human Development, 26, 72-90.

Mergler, N. L., & Schleifer, R. (1983). Generational myths: The adult child caught in the middle. Centerboard, 1, 62-68.

Mergler, N. L., & Zandi, T. (1983). Adult age differences in speed and accuracy of matching verbal and pictorial signs. Educational Gerontology, 9, 73-85.

Mergler, N. L., & Hoyer, W. J. (1981). Training cognitive performance in young and elderly adults. Educational Gerontology, 6, 135-45.

Mergler, N. L., Dusek, J. B., & Hoyer, W. J. (1977). Central and incidental recall in young and elderly adults as a function of verbal labeling. Experimental Aging Research, 3, 49-69.

Dusek, J. B., Mergler, N. L., & Kermis, M. D. (1976). Attention, encoding and information processing in low- and high-test-anxious children. Child Development, 47, 201-207.

Dusek, J. B., Kermis, M. D., & Mergler, N. L. (1975). Information processing in low- and high-test-anxious children as a function of grade level and verbal learning. Developmental Psychology, 11, 651-652.

Thesis and Dissertations Directed and Completed:

Joanna Harris. Ph.D., Fall 1990, "The effects of knowledge and frequency on implicitjudgements"

David Wanser. Ph.D., Fall 1989, "The role of neurotic personality characteristics in stress appraisal and coping in the elderly."

Monica E. Gregory, Ph.D., Fall 1988, "In search of literal truth, sense, and meaning."

Monica E. Gregory, M.S., Fall 1984, "Age differences in fan effect: Influence of thematic integration."

Dodd Charleston, Ph.D., Summer 1984, "Capacity requirements for automatic responding in audition and vision."

Robert Boyer, Ph.D., Spring 1984, "Conscious processes in automatic visual and auditory search."

Dee Ann Chase, M.S., Fall 1982, "The age effect on group shift in the mock jury paradigm."

Taher Zandi, Ph.D., Summer 1982, "Adult developmental shift in memory- encoding strategies."

Marion Faust, M.S., Spring 1981, "Problem solving in younger and older adults: Age or expertise?"

Paper Presentations:

Mergler, N.L. & Schleifer, R. (1994, December). Marking Time: Cognition, discourse, and the phenomenology of temporality. Paper presented at the First International Colloquium on Deixis, Lexington, KY.

Mergler, N.L. (1992, April). Implementing and administering recruitment scholarships that build diversity and academic excellence. Paper presented at the Spring Oklahoma Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Tulsa, OK.

Mergler, N.L., & Gross, D.S. (1990, November). Intellectual Centering: Orientation for Honors Freshmen. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Baltimore, MD.

Harris, J.F., Durso, F.T., Mergler, N.L., & Jones, S.K. (1989, April). Does knowledge base affect even the simplest memory task? Paper presented at the Biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Kansas City, KS.

Gregory, M.E., Mergler, N.L., & Zandi, T. (1988, April). Pet rocks and dogs: Verifying sense and nonsense. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Buffalo, NY.

Harris, J. F., McCurdy, S., & Mergler, N. L. (April, 1987). Are innate automatic processes immune to the effect of knowledge? Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the SW Psych Association, New Orleans, LA.

Gregory, M. E., Durso, F. J., & Mergler, N. L. (April, 1987). The metaphor interference effect: Reversed metaphors reverse the effect. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, DC.

Mergler, N. L. (March, 1987). Are metaphors magical? Behavior as Text. Paper presented at the Comparative Literature Symposium, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK.

Mergler, N. L., Charleston, D. E., & Pollack, R. D. (July, 1985). Adult age difference on auditory and visual Stroop. Paper presented at Annual Congress of the International Association of Gerontology,
New York, NY.

Pollack, R. D., Mergler, N. L., & Charleston, D. E. (April, 1985). Age differences in order effects on auditory Stroop. Paper presented at Annual Convention of Southwestern Psychological Association, Austin, TX.

Gregory, M. E., & Mergler, N. L. (April, 1985). Age differences in fan effect: Influences of thematic integration. Paper presented at Annual Convention of Southwestern Psychological Association,
Austin, TX.

Gregory, M. E., & Mergler, N. L. (November, 1984). Age differences during the process of acquisition: Objective and subjective organization. Paper presented at the Behavioral and Social Science Section of the Gerontological Society of America, San Antonio, TX.

Mergler, N. L., Zandi, T., & Charleston, D. (November 1983). Semantic priming revisited: In search of structural age change in semantic knowledge. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco, CA.

Zandi, T., Duketto, L., Danaro, M., & Mergler, N. L. (April, 1983). Selective retrieval of verbal information in the elderly. Paper presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

Zandi, T., Casey, P. R., & Mergler, N. L. (April, 1983). Adult age differences in the effect of auditory-verbal and visual-pictorial stimuli on retention of implicit and explicit story information. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, Dallas, TX.

Zandi, T., & Mergler, N. L. (August, 1982). Adult age differences in free and cued recall of story information. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D. C.

Mergler, N. L. (August, 1981). Cognitive processes and intellectual development. Poster sessions chaired at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, CA.

Mergler, N. L. (November, 1980). Symposium: Gerontology and biocultural preparedness; the adaptive utility of the elder. Organizer for symposium jointly sponsored by division of biological science and division of behavioral and social science, presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society, San Diego, CA.

Faust, M., Mergler, N. L., & Goldstein, M. D. ( November, 1980). Senescent cognition as a form of preparedness: Elder adaptation to role of oral discourser. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society, San Diego, CA.

Mergler, N. L., & Zandi, T. (November, 1980). Adult differences in speed and accuracy of matching verbal and pictorial traffic signs. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society,
San Diego, CA.

Goldstein, M. D., Mergler, N. L., & Alio, M. D. (November, 1979). Storytelling as an age-dependent skill: Oral recall of orally presented stories. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Phoenix, AZ.

Barber, C. H., & Mergler, N. L. (November, 1977). Age differences in quantity and quality of recall as a function of orienting task. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontology Society, San Francisco, CA.

Farkes, M. S., Kermis, M. D., Mergler, N. L., & Dusek, M. B. (April, 1975). Attentional and encoding factors in low-and high-test-anxious children's incidental learning. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver,CO.

Mergler, N. L., & Hoyer, W. J. (October, 1975). Elderly adult cognitive performance as a function of strategy training and reinforcement. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Gerontology Society, Louisville, KY.

Mergler, N. L., Boates, K. S., & Hoyer, W. J. (August, 1973). Experimental analysis and the developing individual: intellectual dimensions. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, QU.

Academic Service:

Professional:

* Reviewer for Developmental Psychology and Experimental Aging Research
* APA division 7 referee for 1981 convention presentation submissions
* APA division 20 campus representative, 1980-present
* APA chairperson for poster session on cognitive processes and intellectual development, 1981
* Gerontological Society symposium organizer on gerontology and biocultural preparedness, 1980
* Oklahoma Psychological Association regional representative, 1979-1980

State:

* Workshop - "Developmental stages of middle and later life." Mental Health Services of Southern Oklahoma, October, 1979.
* Keynote speaker at Oklahoma Aging - Education and Training Conference, March, 1980 (sponsered by the Special Unit on Aging).
* Colloquium speaker at Oklahoma State University Psychology Department, February, 1981.
* Staff Development Workshop, Continuing Education & Public Service, November, 1983.

University Service:

* University Library Committee, 1980-83.
* University Judicial Tribunal, 1981-84.
* Executive Committee - Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies, 1981-1984.
* University of Oklahoma All Star University, May, 1983.
* Graduate Research Council, 1984-87.

Departmental Service:

* Undergraduate Studies Coordinator, 1986-87.
* Graduate Studies Committee, 1979-87.
* Graduate Admissions Committee, 1980-87; Chair, 1980-83.
* Social Psychology Faculty Search Committee, 1979-80.
* Physiological Faculty Search Committee, 1980-81.
* Developmental Faculty Search Committee, acting chair, 1981-82.
* Acting Coordinator of Developmental Program, 1981-82.
* Space Planning Committee, 1981-82.
* Clinical Feasibility Committee, 1981-82, 1983-84.
* Developmental Curriculum Committee, 1979-81.
* Human Subjects Review Committee, 1983-85; chair, 1984-85.
* Developmental Faculty Search Committee, 1984-85, 1986-87.
* Committee "A", 1984-86

References:
 
        Dr. Joan Wadlow, Chancellor (Former Provost - University of Oklahoma)
        University of Alaska - Fairbanks
        Fairbanks, Alaska 99709

        Dr. Robert Hemenway, Chancellor (Former Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at OU)
        University of Kentucky - Lexington
        Lexington, Kentucky 40503

        Dr. Paul Bell
        Dean, College of Arts & Sciences & Vice Provost for Instruction
        Physical Sciences Building, Rm 1100
        University of Oklahoma
        Norman, Oklahoma 73019 (405) 325-2077

        Mr. Marc Borish (retired)
        Registrar
        Buchanan Hall
        University of Oklahoma
        Norman, Oklahoma 73010 (405) 325-2251

        Mr. Ron Burton (retired)
        Executive Director, OU Foundation
        100 Timberdell Road
        Norman, Oklahoma 73019 (405) 321-1174