Drake University has named Gesine Gerhard dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1. Gerhard will succeed Joe Lenz, who on June 30 will step out of his role as dean and into a sabbatical. Lenz joined the Drake faculty in 1982 and chaired the English Department from 1992 to 2007, became interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2007 and served as dean of the college for all but one year since 2009. Gerhard most recently was associate dean of the College of the Pacific, the largest and oldest academic unit of the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., where she was also the university’s director of general education. She studied at the University of Bologna from 1992 to 1993 before earning her Master of Arts in history at the Technical University of Berlin in 1994. She earned a doctorate in modern German history from the University of Iowa in 2000. Her research focuses on agricultural history and food policy during World War II and the Nazi period; she has delivered more than 50 guest lectures, public talks and conference workshops.