Two of GW’s longest serving deans will step down at the end of the academic year, a University administrator announced Friday afternoon.

Mary Futrell, dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and Susan Phillips, dean of the School of Business, will step down from their positions by June 30, 2010, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald Lehman announced to faculty members Friday afternoon.

“It is with mixed emotions that today I announce that Mary Hatwood Futrell, dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD), and Susan M. Phillips, dean of the School of Business, have informed me of their decisions to step down as deans of their respective schools,” Lehman wrote in an e-mail to GW faculty and staff. “Two of our longest serving deans, they have brought significant personal accomplishments to their respective positions which in turn helped their schools gain national standing and brought recognition to the University as a whole.”

GW will begin a national search this fall to fill both positions, Lehman said. He added that the University hopes to have replacements for the deans in place by June 30, 2010.

Both deans will serve in their positions until successors are identified, said Sarah Baldassaro, associate vice president for Communications.

Lehman said Futrell has served as the dean of GSEHD for 14 years and has “increased the national recognition of the GSEHD programs and for more than ten years kept the school consistently in the top 35 graduate schools for education.”

Phillips has served as dean of the School of Business for 11 years, and Lehman said she has “brought fiscal discipline and financial strength to the School of Business, as well as made significant progress in encouraging and fostering research at the school through internal investment in the faculty.”

Futrell plans to take a sabbatical in the fall of 2010 and return to the GSEHD faculty in January of 2011, Lehman said. He added that Phillips will serve as a faculty member in the School of Business as a professor of finance until she retires from the University in June of 2011.