In Paul Twigg’s office in Thomas Hall, he has shelves full of knickknacks. Each item has a student attached to it: a Nerf gun from a student who is a doctor in Kansas City, a wooden snake from a girl who went to India, a phospholipid from a student who is a medical technologist in Springfield, Missouri and knitted flowers from a student who lived in his home and wouldn’t have finished school without his help.
Twigg arrived in Kearney the year after Kearney State College transitioned to UNK in 1991. As a former faculty member and current dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Twigg has helped evolve the University into a student-focused institution that offers opportunities for scholarship and career exploration.
At the end of May, Twigg will say goodbye to the place where he has spent his entire adult life and move to Murray, Kentucky, to become Murray State University’s provost and vice president for academic affairs.
“At this point, my bones are made of Nebraska,” Twigg said. “The minerals in your bones get recycled over and over again, and they represent the isotope profile of where you live. In other words, my bones are literally made of stuff from Nebraska, so deciding to leave was not a small thing.”
Twigg began his career as a faculty member in the Department of Biology. Since then, he has served as the chair of the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance, graduate chair of the Department of Biology, assistant/associate dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Through each of these positions, Twigg’s emphasis on relationships remained.
“One word that could describe Paul is a student advocate,” said Kristy Kounovsky-Shafer, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “He advocates for students in any role that he’s in and tries to help them to the best of his ability.”
While some may point to the over $32 million in grant funding he’s secured for UNK or his career academy initiative that has expanded the Health Science Explorers program to other areas, Twigg said his real legacy is all the students he has mentored and the influence they have on the people around them.
“What I’ll miss most is the people, the community and the students,” Twigg said.
Julie Shaffer, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, has worked with Twigg at UNK for 27 years.
“I think that what he’s taught me most is just the value of the experiences we have here with each other,” Shaffer said. “He’s very empathetic and he’s really a strong supporter of UNK, and I think that’s important in your job. You really need to care about the people you work with and care about the goals and success of your institution.”
A search firm approached Twigg for the position amid the planning of UNK’s budget reductions in the fall. He wasn’t interested at the time, but the firm reapproached him at the end of January. After an initial interview, Twigg was invited to Murray State’s campus as a finalist. Several days later, he was offered the position.
“I turned 60 years old last November,” Twigg said. “If I was ever going to do anything different, this was probably about the last shot in terms of my age.”
Twigg said Murray State felt like UNK, with similar programs and an emphasis on undergraduate teaching and research.
In addition, Murray State has a school of agriculture that appealed to his background in plants and botany. Twigg will have the ability to build something new in his next position as he will be part of the opening of a nursing building, a pre-health building and Kentucky’s first veterinary school of medicine.
Twigg will begin his new role on June 1. Shaffer said the University will announce an interim dean in the coming weeks. The external search to fill the position will begin in the fall with the new dean expected to start on July 1, 2027.
