Leadership Experience
Dean of the Faculty and William S. Tod Professor of English
Princeton University
I began as Dean of the Faculty at Princeton University in August 2021. I oversee and support the faculty, professional researchers, professional specialists, and professional librarians of Princeton University. In recent years, the Princeton faculty (including visitors and part-time faculty) has totaled approximately 1,200 and the academic professional population 1,500.
Member of AAU Advisory Board for Racial Equity in Higher Education
In March 2020, I was appointed to a new Advisory Board on Racial Equity in Higher Education created by the Association of American Universities. Made up of 25 campus leaders who bring tremendous expertise and experience, the group works to discuss and develop a collective strategy to assist AAU institutional members as they work to address issues of racial inequity on their campuses, but also to examine the structural barriers to access and success in higher education. The group is co-chaired by University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel, Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway, and University of Rochester President Sarah Mangelsdorf. I serve on the subgroup focused on graduate student and faculty recruitment.
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
New York University
I served as Seryl Kushner Dean of NYU’s College of Arts and Science from 2017 to 2021. Among my responsibilities at NYU, I provided innovative vision and leadership for setting undergraduate academic standards and policies in CAS; updated current and developing new academic programs; and fundraised to improve the access, affordability, and advancement of higher education.
Under my leadership, CAS launched the first major and minor undergraduate degrees in data science on the New York City campus of NYU. The courses are provided by the curricular contributions of the Faculty of Arts and Science, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and the Center for Data Science. CAS established a partnership with NYU Stern School of Business. Graduating CAS students who apply to and are accepted into the pilot program “NYU x NYU / CAS-Stern Pathway” would automatically receive $10,000 towards the tuition for the full-time, two-year MBA program at NYU Stern. A similar program was established through a partnership between CAS and NYU Law School: The CAS-NYU Law Pathway Scholarship (CLPS) offers highly qualified and motivated CAS undergraduate students completing their third year of study the opportunity to apply for binding early admission to NYU Law. Students admitted to the Law School through the process receive a full-tuition scholarship to NYU Law. Finally, CAS spearheaded NYU's winning of one of 12 institutional grants from the Association of American Universities to improve STEM education. CAS is also seeking to revise its general education requirements, including the Core Curriculum and system of First-Year Seminars, for the first time in over a decade.
During my tenure as Dean of CAS at NYU, I also served as Vice Chair of Deans Council from 2019-2021. Deans Council considers matters of educational and administrative policy and makes appropriate recommendations to the President and other institutional officers for the University Senate.
Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Humanities
College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University
I served as Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University from 2014 to 2017. In this role, my major responsibilities included overseeing the faculty affairs and actions of humanities departments, programs, centers, and institutes in CAS.
During my tenure as Associate Dean for the Humanities, I spearheaded an initiative with the BU Vice President and Associate Provost for Research, Associate Vice President of the Office of Sponsored Programs, and Director of Foundation Relations to establish workshops and information sessions to familiarize humanities and humanistic-social-science faculty with the virtues of applying for multiyear, self-sustaining grants (as opposed to only once-a-career fellowships). At the same time, I established the Humanities Research Fund in CAS to increase humanities faculty research support. Finally, I also worked with the Associate Vice President and Executive Director of Admissions to create the Humanities Admissions Initiative, enlisting humanities faculty to recruit prospective high school students. Beyond my immediate portfolio as Associate Dean for the Humanities, I regularly lobbied as a Massachusetts delegate of the National Humanities Alliance on Capitol Hill for greater federal funding of the humanities, which had for years been contending with threatened budget cuts.
I co-chaired BU's Task Force on Faculty Diversity and Inclusion, which was created to encourage University-wide discussions on how to make BU a more diverse, inclusive community for faculty members, and to couple institutional data about underrepresented minorities on the faculty with crucial historical background and personal stories about the challenges of recruiting and retaining an excellent and diverse faculty and about the climate of inclusiveness that is important in higher education and at BU in particular. The task force comprised 18 faculty and staff from both the Charles River Campus and the Medical Campus, and held two dozen sessions across the two campuses, in every school and college, to speak with faculty and students. The conclusion of the report prompted the University to appoint a University-wide associate provost for faculty diversity and inclusion and equivalent officers in each of BU's schools and colleges, among other initiatives.