Six Women Who Have Been Appointed to Dean Posts at Colleges and Universities

Anna Westerstahl Stenport, has been named the next dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia, effective June 1. She will join the faculty at the university in April as the University of Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Communication Studies in the department of communication. Dr. Stenport has been serving as dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

Dr. Stenport earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Uppsala University in Sweden. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

Martha Hurley is the new dean of the Liberal Arts, Communication & Social Sciences Division at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, effective June 1. She has been serving as chair and professor in the criminal justice and security studies department at the University of Dayton. Her research focuses on criminal justice policy analysis, restorative justice, corrections, and community-police relationship building. She is the author of Aging in Prison: The Integration of Research and Practice (Carolina Academic Press, 2018).

Born and raised in Darlington, South Carolina, Dr. Hurley earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She holds a master’s degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati.

Heidi Appel has been named the next dean of the University of Houston Honors College. She will assume leadership of the college effective in July. She is serving as a professor of environmental sciences and the dean of the Jesup Scott Honors College at the University of Toledo in Ohio. Earlier, Dr. Appel was senior associate director for the University of Missouri Honors College.

A graduate of Oakland University in Michigan, Dr. Appel holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan.

Katherine L. Gantz is the new vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Dr. Gantz was the associate dean of the faculty. She was named interim dean of faculty in 2021 and interim provost and dean of faculty in 2022. She joined the faculty at the university in 2005.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Gantz holds a bachelor’s degree from Wittenberg University in Ohio. She earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in French at the University of Michigan.

Danielle Dennis, professor of literacy, teacher education, and policy, and former director of the University of Rhode Island School of Education, has been named dean of the Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Education and Professional Studies at the university. Earlier, she was an associate professor at the University of South Florida from 2013 to 2019, where she served as coordinator of its Urban Teacher Residency Partnership Program.

Dr. Dennis earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Florida Gulf Coast University. She holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in language and literacy education from the University of Tennessee.

Sarah Shreeves has been selected to join the University of Utah as the new dean of libraries. She has been serving as vice dean of libraries at the University of Arizona. Before joining the University of Arizona, Shreeves served as associate dean for digital strategies and faculty affairs at the University of Miami libraries.

Shreeves received a bachelor’s degree in medieval studies from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons University in Boston and a master of library and information science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.