Ouachita names Dr. Tim Knight vice president for academic affairs

PHOTO — Ouachita Baptist University’s Tim Knight will be the school’s VP for academic affairs come June. | OBU photo by Lilly Roddy

By JAMES TAYLOR | OBU News Bureau

Ouachita Baptist University has named a new chief academic officer, Dr. Tim Knight, who will become vice president for academic affairs effective June 1, 2026. Ouachita President Ben Sells announced the appointment to the campus community earlier this semester.

“Tim Knight has invested nearly four decades at Ouachita, and in every role he’s held, he has shown steady judgment, a deep care for students and a collaborative spirit,” Sells said. “I’m grateful he has said yes to this call, and I’m confident our faculty, staff and students will be well served by his leadership.”

Knight currently serves as dean of the Patterson School of Natural Sciences, a position he has held since 2012. He succeeds Dr. Justin Hardin, who was recently named provost and vice president for academic affairs at Montreat College in North Carolina.

“This was not something I was looking for,” Knight said. “I didn’t come to Ouachita thinking I wanted to be vice president for academic affairs. I see it as a different way to serve the people who have been such an important part of my life and work.”

A 1984 Ouachita graduate, Knight earned a Bachelor of Science in biology before completing his M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental sciences with an emphasis in aquatic toxicology from the University of Texas at Dallas. He returned to Ouachita to teach biology, and in 1999 was named the J.D. Patterson Endowed Chair in the Department of Biology.

During Knight’s tenure as dean, the School of Natural Sciences has launched two graduate programs, nutrition & dietetics and applied behavior analysis, as well as multiple undergraduate programs. These include a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, which is now one of Ouachita’s largest majors. Knight served as chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and has also directed the Patterson Summer Research Program and chaired the Health Professions Advisory Committee.

Beyond Ouachita, Knight has been a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission since 2007, conducting site visits at institutions across the country. He has served appointments to the State Board of Education, the Ouachita River Commission and the Arkansas Osteopathic Rural Medical Practice Student Loan and Scholarship Board.

Knight pointed to two major priorities as he steps into the role: updating Ouachita’s core curriculum and preparing the campus for its next accreditation review, scheduled for December 2027.

“Ouachita’s core classes are at the heart of our Christian, liberal arts education,” Knight said. “With a renewed core that prepares students for careers and a changing world, we’ll be training advisors as we plan for the next generation of students.”

Plymale to lead School of Natural Sciences

Dr. Ruth Plymale, the current J.D. Patterson Chair of Biology, will serve as interim dean of the Patterson School of Natural Sciences for the 2026-27 academic year, also beginning June 1.

“In addition to being an outstanding teacher and advisor for students entering health professions, Ruth is the most organized person I’ve ever known,” Knight said. “We’ve got a great team of faculty, too, who lead their areas and invest in students every day.”

Plymale joined the Ouachita faculty in 2009 and has chaired the Department of Biology since 2023. She earned a Ph.D. in entomology from Penn State University and completed postdoctoral appointments at Penn State and Cornell University. An active researcher with more than two decades of external funding, she has mentored dozens of undergraduates in her laboratory and developed course-based undergraduate research experiences in freshman biology and microbiology that have engaged more than 1,200 Ouachita students.

Plymale pointed to faculty advising and hands-on learning as two of the university’s signature strengths.

“Many students are confident they want to study science but aren’t sure exactly what field,” Plymale said. “We work with them, and with each other, to help them find where they best fit. Advising is a key piece of positioning students to be successful.”

One example of its hands-on approach to education is the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, with Ouachita being the only undergraduate institution in Arkansas that provides clinical experience in the field.

“All of our programs offer opportunities beyond the classroom,” she added. “Whether it’s course-based research in biology or the clinical hours that our speech pathology students get, every program here has a way for students to take what they’re learning and put it into practice.”

Ouachita Baptist University, a private liberal arts university in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, is in its 140th year as a Christ-centered learning community. Learn more about the university’s highly personal approach, reflected in a student-to-faculty ratio of 14:1, at www.obu.edu.