Tim Lewis, the chair of the St. Thomas biology department, will step down at the end of the fiscal year on June 30 after holding the position for six years.

Although his term at St. Thomas was not set to end for two more years, Lewis decided to step down after this year. He felt it would be better than changing leadership during the university’s new strategic planning implementation process in the near future.

“The biology department is a big department, an important department … and we’re going to be playing a pretty big role in that implementation of the strategic plan, and that process is going to take several years,” Lewis said. “It wouldn’t make sense to change department leadership in the middle of that process.”

Biology professor Jayna Ditty will take his place as department chair, while Lewis will remain at the university as a professor. Lewis said he is optimistic about the change.

“From a student’s point of view, (St. Thomas) has a great biology department that will continue to be a great biology department and will be even better,” he said.

Lewis said the decision to make Ditty the new chair was a “positive collaborative process” between the department and the university.

“We discussed other possibilities, but people really coalesced quickly around wanting (Ditty) to do it,” he said, citing her experience with leadership roles on campus as one reason the decision came naturally.

Lewis came to St. Thomas to be the biology department chair six years ago after serving as a chair for 12 years at Wittenberg University in Ohio. He said he’s excited to remain on campus as a professor and plans to use his new free time to finish up some academic writing.

“I will be spending more time doing the two things I really love most, which are teaching and research,” he said. “They’re the two things I went into the profession for.”

Lewis’ students agree that he seems to truly enjoy teaching.

“Anyone who has had Lewis’ class knows how much fun it is,” said sophomore Stephanie Garcia, who also works with Lewis on research. “He brings the energy and makes it a lot of fun.”

“I feel like he might be happier teaching than being a chair, just because of the way he interacts with the class,” sophomore Ellen Goding said.

Still, there are some aspects of being a chair Lewis said he will miss.

“As a chair, I know what the different faculty are accomplishing. They don’t brag about it, but I see it every year in their annual reviews,” Lewis said. “I get to see all that cool stuff going on, and I won’t be privy to most of that once I’m not chair. I won’t hear as many of the exciting things people are doing, and that’s probably going to be the hardest part.”

Lauren Schaffran can be reached at scha7492@stthomas.edu.