MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler announced Tuesday that a 21-member advisory committee and a four-member search committee will help in the process of finding the school’s new athletic director.

Joel Maturi announced earlier this month that he will step down as athletic director when his current contract expires at the end of June. He is staying at the university as a faculty member and special assistant to Kaler.

Kaler said the four-person search committee will include Timothy Mulcahy, vice president for research at the University of Minnesota, Mary Jo Kane, the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the U of M, Amy Phenix, the chief of staff for Kaler and John E. Lindahl, the managing general partner of Norwest Equity Partners and a graduate of the Carlson School of Management.

The larger 21-member panel includes student-athletes, Gopher coaches Don Lucia and Meg Stephenson, former student-athletes Quincy Lewis and Susan Grimm and Gophers athletics supporters Lou Nanne, Dave Mona and Darrell Thompson.

Kaler said the panels will work with Parker Executive Search to find the school’s new athletic director. They hope to have finalists for the position by late April, a person named by early May and in place by July 1.