UNLV Provost Douglas Ferraro announced today that he will resign his position, effective Aug. 15, and join the faculty of UNLV's department of psychology.

"The time is right for me to take stock and look ahead personally," Ferraro said. "Having achieved 16 consecutive years as an academic administrator and, most importantly, feeling a passionate desire to spend more time with my family, I have decided to move on from the provost's position on Aug. 15."

Ferraro will take a semester of development leave this fall, "after which I look forward with enthusiasm to joining my faculty colleagues in the department of psychology and hopefully recapturing the reflective, academic lifestyle I began some 36 years ago."

"Dr. Ferraro has been a tireless worker and has brought many skills to the provost's job," President Carol C. Harter said. "His high academic standards have been a great asset to the university and have contributed to several major accomplishments.

"Perhaps Douglas's most important contribution resulted from his efforts to support and promote the hiring of high-quality, diverse new faculty campus-wide. In the last four years UNLV has hired some 400 faculty members from excellent institutions around the country," Harter said, adding that Ferraro's reorganization of UNLV's colleges to bring them into better alignment with institutional goals, as well as the programmatic and aesthetic sense he brought to the design of new academic facilities, were significant additions to the university.

Ferraro came to UNLV as provost -- the university's top academic officer -- in 1995 from Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo, where he served as dean of arts and sciences. Previously he was chair of the department of psychology at the University of New Mexico, where he also held professorships in psychiatry and psychology.