MARQUETTE, Mich.- Lesley Larkin, an English faculty member at Northern Michigan University, has been appointed acting provost and chief academic officer. NMU President Fritz Erickson made the announcement via a campus-wide email this afternoon.

Larkin has agreed to fill the role until Provost Paul Lang can return from extended medical leave or NMU completes its national search-already in progress-for his successor. Lang previously announced he would step down from his provost and vice president position at the end of the academic year.

"The appointment is needed now for many reasons, but most importantly for continuing in the forward movement of the university's strategic planning and core values development," wrote Erickson in the email.

Larkin said, "I am delighted to bring a faculty perspective to this office and do everything I can in this brief period to make our transition to a new provost as successful as possible."

Larkin joined the NMU faculty in 2008. She has taught courses in composition, American literature, African American literature, gender and literature, and critical theory. She is the author of Race and the Literary Encounter: Black Literature from James Weldon Johnson to Percival Everett and is drafting a second book titled North American Literature in the Genomic Age. Larkin holds a master's degree and doctorate from the University of Washington and a bachelor's degree from Linfield College. At Northern, she has served on numerous committees, most recently chairing the president's committee on diversity and co-chairing the provost search committee.