ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE

(INCLUDING SELECT SHARED GOVERNANCE)

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Dean (July 2020-present). College of Arts and Sciences. Loyola University Chicago, where I oversee a large, highly complex, academic structure comprised of:

• 19 academic departments spanning the Computational Sciences, Fine and Performing Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.

• 28 interdisciplinary programs, including the interdisciplinary Honors Program.

• 7 interdisciplinary research centers, including the Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage.

• 446 full-time faculty (275 tenure-track and 171 non-tenure-track on multiyear contracts).

• 274 part-time faculty and 17 non-tenure-track faculty on one-year contracts.

• 65 staff members across all departments, programs, and centers.

• 7,075 undergraduate and 666 graduate students (roughly 50% of Loyola students).

• 2,000+ classes each semester, including roughly 88% of all Core Curriculum classes taken by students from across all thirteen Loyola schools and colleges.

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Accomplishments as Dean since July 2020

 

• Strategic vision. Developed a six-point strategic vision to integrate the College’s complex academic structures and to inform all new initiatives as we build for the future. This vision promotes (1) interdisciplinary initiatives; (2) academic innovation; (3) alumni and donor engagement; (4) external grants; (5) internationalization; and (6) inclusivity.

• Shared governance. Restructured the College’s shared governance structures to promote collaborative input on substantive policy issues, with a special focus on the Dean’s College Leadership Council (comprised of department chairs and interdisciplinary program and center directors) and the Dean’s Advisory Council (comprised of prominent alumni and donors).

• Strategic planning. Launched and led a comprehensive two-year strategic planning process to identify fundable projects to ensure that the College remains at the forefront of academic innovation. Seven major projects were identified and launched, ranging from the Center for Data Science and Consulting and the Center for Research on International Affairs to a series of Building Bridges scholarships for undergraduate students.

• Jesuit Catholic character. As a dean with a life-long commitment to the Jesuit Catholic academic ideal, I have undertaken numerous initiatives designed to deepen the Jesuit Catholic presence in the College. These have ranged from the successful recruitment of Jesuit faculty for full-time faculty positions to the launch in July 2023 of a Jesuit Heritage Research Center that is designed to make the College a national and international crossroads for Jesuit heritage research and collaborations.

• Innovative program development. Fostered the development of new academic programs to attract students who are interested in the careers of tomorrow, ranging from a Minor in Law and Politics to MS programs in Cybersecurity and Data Science and a PhD in Computer Science. These and other efforts have contributed to healthy, steady enrollment within the College over time, from 6,818 majors (99,778 credit hours) in fall 2020 (my first as dean) to 7,175 majors (107,169 credit hours) in fall 2024.

• STEM integration. One of my early initiatives as dean was to launch a task force of leaders in the College who were dedicated to STEM integration and especially the promotion of a state-of-the-art STEM integration building to replace outdated facilities at Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus. This initiative culminated in a university decision to build a $250 million, state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary science building, that will include the College’s Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Forensic Science programs as well as the School of Nursing, on which the university is breaking ground in December 2025.

• Interdisciplinary program development. A cornerstone of my deanship has been building interdisciplinary bridges within the College as well as between the College and all other schools at Loyola to enhance faculty research and student engagement. This commitment has resulted in the launching of five new interdisciplinary research centers that focus on the most pressing issues of our day in the areas of criminal justice, cybersecurity, data science, international affairs, and the College’s Jesuit heritage.

• Joint initiatives with other schools and colleges. My commitment to interdisciplinary development includes the pursuit of joint programs with other Loyola units, ranging from an interdisciplinary MA in International Affairs that includes tracks with seven different schools and colleges to new MEds in coordination with the School of Education and the Chicago Public School System. Noteworthy ongoing efforts include a joint BS/MD with the Stritch School of Medicine, a 3-3 program with the School of Law, and a BS in Health Sciences with the Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health.

• Alumni and donor engagement. Significant growth in cash gifts to the College after completely restructuring in coordination with Loyola’s Advancement Division how the College engages with alumni and donors. An increase from just over $1 million in cash gifts in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to a record $5.2 million in FY 2025.

• External grants. Significant growth in external grants after restructuring in coordination with the Provost’s Office and the Office of Research Services how the College manages and incentivizes the faculty’s pursuit of external grants. During the last four years, College faculty obtained a yearly average of $7.7 million/54 external grants, which is a 60% increase over the yearly average of $4.8 million/41 grants during the previous four-year period.

• Public-private partnerships. I have also prioritized collaboration with the University’s offices of Governmental Affairs and Corporate and Foundation Relations to pursue and deepen public-private partnerships that are funded through foundation and/or government grants. An illustrative example is a multiyear $1.5 million “neuroscience and society” initiative funded by the Dana Foundation that involves local middle school and high school students in neuroscience research, ethical inquiry, and student leadership.

• Student scholarships. Created and permanently funded five new sets of Building Bridges scholarships that enable undergraduate students to make their academic dreams come true, whether in terms of studying abroad, pursuing an interdisciplinary minor, or involvement in community engagement. Our most recently created Arrupe Building Bridges scholarship fully funds students who have graduated with a two-year Associate degree from Loyola’s Arrupe College to pursue a four-year BA or BS degree in the College of Arts and Sciences.

• Faculty-mentored research as a student recruitment tool. As part of a desire to make faculty-mentored research a defining characteristic of the undergraduate experience in the College, we launched in 2022 a four-week Undergraduate Summer Research Experience (USRE) that introduces freshmen and sophomores to research under the mentorship of a faculty member in the summer following their freshman or sophomore year. A record 100 undergraduate students were funded to participate in 73 faculty-mentored projects in summer 2025, with each student receiving up to $3,500. For upper-division undergraduate students, we launched a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), which as of 2025-26 includes each semester more than 20 courses involving upwards of 400 students each semester in special research-based courses.

• Student advisement and retention. Reimagined how the College’s student advisement team approaches our 3,500+ undergraduate advisees in their junior and senior years to enhance the student academic experience and contribute to higher retention rates. Efforts have ranged from creating nimble on-line and in-person advisement structures and launching “nuts-and-bolts” workshops for at-risk groups such as veterans, transfer, and first-generation students, to hosting graduation audit workshops and more effectively coordinating with the University’s Office of First and Second Year Advisement.

• Building international bridges. Established a strategic partnership with the Office for Global and Community Engagement to enhance the College’s international footprint, with a special focus on enhancing the College’s relationship with Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center in Italy and increasing the number of faculty-led travel classes. I am a firm believer that our academic institutions are much better places, and that our students, faculty, staff, and administrators are much better people, when we are globally aware and connected.

• Investing in faculty. As dean, I have launched several new initiatives designed to underscore the faculty’s role as the bedrock of institutional success, ranging from hosting “brunches with the dean” that in 2024-25 were attended by 174 full-time faculty to celebrations heralding the arrival of new faculty and the promotions of current faculty. In collaboration with the College’s nineteen department chairs, we also revised our full-time faculty hiring strategy to emphasize three factors – interdisciplinarity, the pursuit of external grants, and inclusivity – in addition to our classic focus on hiring outstanding researchers and teachers. Of the 142 full-time faculty hired during the last five years (56% tenure-track and 44% non-tenure track), a record 56% or seventy-nine faculty self-identify as faculty of color and a record 45% or sixty-four are female faculty.

• Inclusive excellence. I also constituted in my second year as dean a special task force on Faculty Gender Equity that, for the first time in College history and after nearly two years of effort, submitted an outstanding data-driven report inclusive of thirty-one recommendations for enhancing gender equity. After broad discussions throughout all levels of the College, we have moved ahead with College-level recommendations, including resolving pay inequities, workload questions, and mentorship. I firmly believe that an inclusive work environment is critical to successfully recruiting, retaining, and supporting a workforce of excellence.

• Staff development. Created and funded a professional development program for College staff members whereby they are embedded, all expenses paid, as participants (not workers) in faculty-led travel classes during the January and summer terms. Since January 2023, fourteen staff members from the College have been embedded in faculty-led classes to Belfast (Northern Ireland), Washington DC, Quito (Ecuador), London and Oxford (United Kingdom), and Rome (Italy).

• Championing faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Collaborated with the University’s Office of Marketing and Communication to create and launch a weekly College “spotlight” series that is designed to champion the world-class accomplishments of the College’s faculty, staff, alumni, and students. This initiative has fostered a tremendous amount of pride, appreciation, and common loyalty within the College and has served as a highly effective vehicle for communicating College successes to external audiences.

• Thoughtful decision-making and leadership. As a specialist of the theory and practice of decision-making models, I embody a decision-making approach based on inclusivity, transparency, and collaboration – shared governance traits that are crucial to leadership success. 

• The best leaders are the best listeners. The most important rule that I have learned as an administrator, teacher, and scholar is that the best leaders are the best listeners.

 

Department Chair (July 2012-June 2020). Department of Political Science. Loyola University Chicago

• Managed a large, complex department that as of spring 2020 included twenty-three full-time and eleven part-time faculty, 583 declared Political Science majors, 137 declared Political Science minors, and four graduate programs (BA/MA, MA/JD, MA, and PhD).

• Fostered equity among the faculty ranks by integrating full-time, non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty as equal members of the department, including full voting rights on all issues at department meetings, class scheduling parity, inclusion in department committees, and critical teaching support (e.g., individual offices).

• Developed strategies that successfully contributed to the diversification of department faculty. In terms of gender, for example, the department witnessed a transformation from including only two full-time female faculty (or 10.5% of a nineteen-member faculty) in 2006-07, to nine full-time female faculty (or 39% of a twenty-three-member faculty) in 2019-20, with six of those hires taking place during my time as chair.

• Oversaw a multiyear effort designed to enhance undergraduate offerings that resulted in a 44% increase in declared Political Science majors from 406 declared majors in September 2015 to 583 declared majors in April 2020.

• Led the development and launch in Fall 2016 of an interdisciplinary undergraduate Washington DC Center in coordination with Loyola’s School of Communication and the Office of Government Affairs that permits undergraduate students from all Loyola Schools and Colleges to spend a semester interning in Washington DC while taking a full course load with classes taught by Loyola faculty.

• Oversaw the expansion of teaching and programmatic contributions to fourteen interdisciplinary programs, making Political Science one of the largest departmental contributors to interdisciplinary programs.

• Developed an alumni and donor gift initiative in coordination with Advancement and Alumni Relations to fund new Political Science programming, such as an interdisciplinary initiative with the Department of Fine and Performing Arts in which four politically oriented plays were attended by Political Science students and faculty over a four-year period (2016-20). 

• Launched with donor funding new undergraduate experiential learning programs, such as Chicago Model United Nations, Model European Union, and national Moot Court competitions.

 

Elected Chair (2009-2010). Faculty Council. Loyola University Chicago (with added service 2005-2012 as elected faculty representative, and 2007-2012 as elected member of the executive committee)

• Elected Chair of the body that represents faculty of all Schools and Colleges at the Lake Shore, Health Sciences, and Water Tower campuses.

• Worked directly with the President and the Senior Academic Officers on numerous faculty-related issues, including salary, teaching loads, leave policies, gender equity, tenure-and-promotion guidelines, and rights and privileges of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty.

• Contributed to the restructuring of Loyola’s shared governance system that led to the creation of a new University Senate representing administrators, faculty, staff, and students.

• Developed greater linkages between faculty at the Lakeside campuses (Water Tower and Lake Shore campuses) and the Health Sciences campus.

• Fostered a spirit of cooperation between faculty and administration through regular meetings with the President and the Provost.

 

Graduate Program Director (2008-2012). Department of Political Science. Loyola

University Chicago

• Directed four graduate programs (BA/MA, MA/JD, MA, and PhD).

• Managed a restructuring of the department’s PhD program to focus on “Global Politics” as part of the University’s focus on the internationalization of the curriculum.

• Worked with the Graduate School to increase the number of internally and externally funded graduate students.

• Oversaw admissions process, funding decisions, course offerings, comprehensive exams, and student advising.

• Coordinated with the Graduate School to enhance the diversification and internationalization of the graduate student body.

• Served as department representative to the Graduate School’s Council of Graduate School Programs.

 

Elected Chair (2008-2009). Faculty Affairs University Policy Committee (FAUPC). Loyola University Chicago (with added service 2007-2008 as member)

• Elected Chair of shared governance body that reviewed university policies affecting faculty of all schools and colleges at the Lake Shore, Health Sciences, and Water Tower campuses.

• Coordinated a university-wide consultative process that revised for the first time since 1993 the Faculty Handbook, with the new edition appearing in 2009 (the first time that the handbook had been revised in sixteen years).

• Reviewed and developed faculty proposals for a variety of family-friendly policies, such as maternity leave, that are now operative at the university.

 

Acting Program Director (Fall 2005). Global and International Studies Program. Loyola University Chicago

• Managed all aspects of an interdisciplinary program with several hundred majors and minors while the Director was on leave, including student advising, class scheduling, and coordination with departments that contribute courses to the program.

• Added service included serving on the committee that transformed the minor into a major, teaching the introductory 101 course (1998-2004), creating and teaching the first capstone course (spring 2008), creating an internship program and class (1998-2002), and serving on the program’s Advisory Board (2005-2011; 1996-2002; 1991-1994).

 

Internship Director (1998-2005), including 1998-2002 for a joint Internship Program between the Department of Political Science and the Global and International Studies Program; and 2003-2005 for the John Felice Rome Center

• Created and directed a joint internship program that involved expanding an existing Political Science internship program and creating a Global and International Studies internship program.

• Developed placements, recruited students, created course and evaluation materials, and taught the internship class.

• By the end of spring 2002, this joint program was annually placing nearly eighty students, with more than 50% of Political Science and Global and International Studies majors graduating with at least one internship experience. The large number of enrolled students resulted in the program being split between two directors: one for Political Science and one for the Global and International Studies Program.

• While serving as a visiting professor (2003-05) at Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center, and drawing on my Chicago-based administrative experience, I created and coordinated the internship program, including developing placements, placing the students, and teaching the internship class. I placed thirteen students with host organizations in Rome in spring 2004, and fifteen students in spring 2005.

 

Elected President (1998-1999). International Studies Association/Midwest (with added service 1997-1998 as Convention Coordinator)

• Elected President of the Midwest regional affiliate of the parent International Studies Association.

• Managed all aspects of the organization, including budget, member relations, academic committees, and the annual academic conference.

 

Convention Coordinator (1985-1986). International Studies Association. University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (with added service 1986-1987 as officer for the Foreign Policy Analysis section)

• Served as Convention Coordinator for the 7,000-member International Studies Association, while pursuing my Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina where the organization was based.

• Coordinated all aspects of the 1986 annual convention, including annual budget, negotiations with local hotels and providers, paper submission vetting and panel creation, and on-site registration.

 

 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS (INCLUDING OVERSEAS)

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• Member (2024-present). Advisory Board of Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center (JFRC) in Rome, Italy

• Member (2020-present). Dean’s Council (reports to Provost)

• Chair (2024-25). Search committee for the Dean of the School of Environmental Sustainability

• Dean Representative (2022-24). University Leadership Council (President’s Cabinet)

• Chair (2023-24). Search committee for the Dean of the School of Education

• Professor in Residence (August 2003-July 2005, and summer 2006 and summer 2017). John Felice Rome Center (Italy)

• Fulbright Lecturer and Researcher (October 2002-August 2003). Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tunis, El Manar (Tunisia) (also served in December 2004-January 2005 as a Fulbright Senior Specialist Lecturer)

• Visiting Lecturer (May-June 1999 and September 1999). Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of the Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe)

• Scholar in Residence (June-August 1996). French Institute of African Research (IFRA), Harare (Zimbabwe)

• Fulbright Lecturer (October 1994-June 1995 and December 1995-August 1996). Faculty of Law and Political Science, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar (Senegal)

• Visiting Scholar (August 1989-July 1990). Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

• U.S. State Department Intern (June-August 1987). U.S. Embassy, Djibouti City (Djibouti)

• Visiting Instructor (June-August 1985). Somali National University and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mogadishu (Somalia)

 

SELECT SERVICE AT LOYOLA

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• Member (2020-present). Dean’s Council (reports to Provost)

• Dean Representative (2022-24). University Leadership Council (President’s Cabinet)

• Dean Representative (2021-23). Academic Affairs Subcommittee, Board of Trustees

• Member (2012-20). African Studies and African Diaspora Program Advisory Board (also served on the advisory board of this program’s predecessor, Black World Studies, 1996-2002; 1991-1994)

• Member (2012-20). Islamic World Studies Advisory Board

• Elected Board Member (2016-19). Our Lady of the Wayside School Board

• Member (2017-18). Financial Planning Working Group–Academic Affairs, tasked by the President and Provost’s Office with reviewing the financials of existing academic programs and exploring the costs of potential new programs

• Member (2015-16). Task Force on the Structure and Future of the Interdisciplinary Global and International Studies Program

• Member (2014-15). Task Force on the Structure of the College of Arts and Sciences, tasked with determining whether and how the College should be restructured to meet new needs and opportunities

• Faculty Mentor (summer 2013). McNair Fellows Mentoring Program

• Member (2006-2012; 1998-2002; 1990-1993). Graduate Committee, Department of Political Science

• Member (2005-12). John Felice Rome Center Advisory Committee

• Member (2005-2011; 1996-2002; 1991-1994). Global and International Studies Program Advisory Board

• Co-Creator and Co-Organizer (2006-2007). Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Economic Literacy Project (with Nick Patricca)

• Member (2006-2007). Ricci Scholarship Fellowship Committee (year-long grants for students to study/research for one semester each at Loyola’s Beijing and Rome campuses)

• Member (2005-2007; 1998-2002). Graduate Fellowship Committee (university-wide graduate research grants)

• Member (2005-2006). Presidential Task Force on Assessing Shared Governance at Loyola University

• Founder and Faculty Advisor (2003-2005). International Relations Club, John Felice Rome Center

• Campus Program Advisor (1998-1999). Fulbright Program (graduate and undergraduate students)

• Faculty Advisor (1996-1999; 1990-1994). Loyola chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science National Honor Society)

• Member (1993-1994). Undergraduate Committee, Department of Political Science

• Department Representative (1990-1993). Academic Council, College of Arts and Sciences