Dear faculty and staff,
I am pleased to announce that the search for the inaugural dean of Dartmouth's School of Arts and Sciences is underway.
Officially launched in July, the new school is enhancing how Dartmouth College provides an exceptional, vibrant, and quintessential academic experience by bringing together the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Division of Student Affairs. I am grateful to Interim Dean Nina Pavcnik and her leadership team for their work to ensure that the school will be fully operational and ready for the direction of the inaugural dean by July 1, 2026.
A search advisory committee has been formed that includes faculty and staff from across Arts and Sciences, as well as student and trustee representation. Faculty were selected based on recommendations by the Committee Advisory to the President and the Committee on Organization and Policy. Thalia Wheatley was elected chair by the search advisory committee, whose members are:
- Margaret Ackerman, professor of engineering, Thayer School of Engineering
- Richard Beaudoin, associate professor of music
- Adria Brown '15, director of the Native American Program
- Jeffrey Friedman, associate professor of government
- Lexie Gauthier '26
- Odette Harris '91, trustee
- Michael Herron, Remsen 1943 Professor of Quantitative Social Science
- Luis Alvarez León, associate professor of geography
- Mary Nyhan, director of the Undergraduate Deans Office
- Matthew Rizzo, vice president for development
- Jomysha Delgado Stephen, executive vice president for strategy, special counsel to the president, and secretary to the Board of Trustees
- Amie Thomasson, Daniel P. Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy
- Soroush Vosoughi, associate professor of computer science
- Thalia Wheatley (chair), Lincoln Filene Professor in Human Relations, psychological and brain sciences
We have also enlisted John Muckle '99 and the team at Isaacson, Miller to assist the committee in identifying and vetting candidates. Please submit nominations if you would like to recommend someone from within or beyond the Dartmouth community. The committee will also host listening sessions with community members, and they will announce those times in the coming weeks.
The new dean must be a visionary leader committed to Dartmouth's extraordinary student experience and to the teaching, research, scholarship, and innovation that are at the heart of our mission. My thanks to the search advisory committee members for taking on this important work.
Best,
Sian Leah Beilock
President