Dean Womens College

Description About Stephens College

Stephens College began in 1833 with a belief that women deserved access to the power of education. Nearly two centuries later, that work is unfinished. Too many people who want to create, care, build, question, and act with purpose still lack the access or education that would empower them to lead. Stephens exists to widen the frame of possibility. Through personalized, experiential education rooted in care, mentorship, and professional engagement, Stephens turns learning into action and action into lasting impact.

The Women's College is built on a simple conviction: students become leaders by doing consequential work early, mentored by accomplished faculty, staff, and alums who believe in them. Its undergraduate and graduate programs are organized into five academic pathways that unite degree programs around the careers and lives they unlock:

• Healthcare & Life Sciences: Future nurses train in the campus Simulation Center and at Magnet-designated Boone Health;
  Women in STEM Research students conduct original research across all four years; future doctors and vets train in our popular Biology program; and graduate students in Physician Assistant Studies and Counseling prepare to care for their corners of the world.
• Education: Future teachers stand in front of a classroom at The Children's School at Stephens College in their very first semester, because the best way to learn to teach is to teach.
• Equestrian & Animal Care: At the College's renowned Equestrian Center and in the Center for Companion Animal Behavior, Equestrian and Animal Behavior students learn responsibility for lives other than their own, launching careers across the equine and animal behavior fields.
• Creative Arts & Design: Students in fashion, graphic design, creative writing, English, and content creation make work for real audiences: through the student-run agency Creative Ink, its award-winning magazine, Stephens Life, and in the pages of Harbinger, the student-run literary journal that has published new voices for nearly a century.
• Business: Six concentrations, from Entrepreneurship to Hospitality Management, for students whose ambition is to build something.

A sixth pathway,
Performing Arts
, resides in our all-gender Conservatory for the Performing Arts.

The undergraduate block schedule makes all of it possible, enabling students to engage in internships, partnerships, student-led enterprises, research, and study abroad programs during the academic year. Professional experience is woven throughout every degree rather than deferred to the end as a culmination.

The next Dean of the Women's College will assume leadership in a time buoyed by new momentum across the college: a new mission, a new strategic plan in development, and institutional alignment around the very things that make Stephens one of the most distinctive colleges in the nation.

The Dean of the Women's College serves as the chief academic officer of the Women's College, is a member of the Academic Leadership Team, and reports to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. The Dean provides leadership in the Women's College, overseeing all academic programs, faculty, staff, and operations within the College. The Dean is responsible for fostering a culture of academic excellence, innovation, and collaboration, advancing student recruitment, retention, and success, building meaningful partnerships with external stakeholders, and acting as an ethical steward of the College's resources, facilities, and personnel.