The Dean of the College’s Office is set to begin the search for a replacement for Pre-Health Advisor Stacy Barton, who is scheduled to leave the College at the end of July, according to Lee Witters, pre-health advisor and Dartmouth Medical School professor. The College hopes to find a replacement advisor by the start of Fall term, Dean of the College Sylvia Spears said. Spears, who will oversee the search, initially said she hoped that a committee would form during the week of July 11 in an interview with The Dartmouth on July 9.

Administrative delays, however, hindered the start of the search process, Witters said in a later e-mail to The Dartmouth.

Witters will chair the search committee, although the rest of the members of the committee have not been determined yet, he said.

The search will begin as the College prepares to implement College President Jim Yong Kim’s reorganization of student advising services, slated to occur over the next year, Spears said.

The search committee will look for a candidate with a background in advising services rather than in academics, although experience in pre-health advising in particular is not required for the position, Spears said.

“[Witters] has done a tremendous job of supporting [whoever has] been in that role to understand the nuances of pre-health advising,” she said.

The College will offer the position to current employees or recently laid-off employees before conducting an external search, Spears added.

Barton plans to pursue a position at Thetford Academy in Thetford, Vt., where she will initiate an international students program, she said.

Barton has served as one of the College’s two pre-health advisors since August 2009, when she replaced former pre-health advisor Kim Sauerwein.

While working as pre-health advisors, Barton and Sauerwein also served as acting assistant director of Career Services and assistant director of Career Services, respectively.

Witters said he does not believe that Barton’s departure will negatively impact the quality of services offered to pre-health students during the interim period.

“I don’t anticipate any downtick in terms of the availability of advising for students,” he said.

Witters will also increase his time commitment to the program to compensate for Barton’s departure, Spears said.

“I think we are confident that we’ve got an appropriate level of support for the summer,” she said.

The pre-health advising program will fall under the oversight of the dean of the college’s office once the planned restructuring of student advising services has been implemented, Spears said.

“I would consider pre-health advisor to be one of the specialists attached to the advising structure that we will develop over the next several months,” Spears said.

Although students will not perceive a change in the advising services currently offered by the College, the dean of the college’s office will begin to implement changes at the internal level, Spears said.

The College is considering relocating the pre-health advising program, which is currently based in Parkhurst Hall, to a central location that would house various advising programs under the new structure, Spears said.

In a previous interview with The Dartmouth, Witters said he believed that the restructuring would benefit the pre-health advising system, which has suffered from limited resources and staffing in recent years.

“I actually am quite upbeat at the overall development, as it gives us an opportunity to reorganize the Health Professions Program to provide better service to all [undergraduates] and many alums through both advising and our experiential programs,” he said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.