Vice President of the University and Dean of Academic Affairs

Dear Laurentian community,

I am pleased to announce that Alison Del Rossi will serve as our next Vice President of the University and Dean of Academic Affairs. As a candidate for the role, she received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our community. I am excited to work with Alison as our chief academic officer and as a key member of our senior leadership team.

With a proven track record of success, Alison is well prepared to take on the challenges our next Dean will face. She is a well-respected teacher-scholar-mentor at St. Lawrence with experience leading change, while bringing a wealth of institutional knowledge to the position and a deep understanding of the complex issues we face as a community.

Alison has demonstrated her leadership skills during several administrative appointments, including as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs for seven years, as Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in the Education Department, and most recently as Co-Chair of the Economics Department. She has been a faculty member since 1999 and has held the R. Sheldon ’68 and Virginia H. Johnson endowed professorship in Economics since 2017.

During her time as the Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, Alison led several initiatives that have had a lasting impact. They include a focus on expanding faculty diversity, significantly re-vamping New Faculty Orientation, enhancing mentoring of tenure-track faculty, increasing support for adjunct faculty, and promoting increased awareness and focus on academic integrity and honesty.

While overseeing the graduate program and Education Department, Alison played a role in developing the new Master of Arts in Leadership degree. In addition, with great care, she helped the department navigate closure of several graduate programs.

Among her many leadership experiences as a faculty member, Alison has twice served on the Professional Standards Committee, and she served as Co-Chair of the Recession Response and Planning Task Group during fall of 2009. In the latter capacity, she led a group of 14 faculty and staff members that studied the University’s budget to fulfill a charge of recommending ways to close a budget deficit.

While Alison’s official duties as Dean will start on July 1, 2023, she will serve as Dean-elect beginning January 1. Over the spring semester, Alison will take on increasing responsibilities. She will begin attending senior staff meetings, will be involved in searches for key leadership positions, and will participate in work to advance key strategic initiatives.

I am grateful to Trustee Heather McCauley and Professor Liz Regosin, co-chairs, and all members of the dean search committee for their thoughtful and comprehensive work. Throughout the search process, Alison demonstrated to the search committee and others on campus that she has the leadership skills to guide our academic program with fairness and empathy. 

I would also like to extend a sincere thank you to our current Dean Karl Schonberg for his service over the past seven years and as he completes his term at the end of June.

I hope you will join me in congratulating Alison on her new appointment. I wish you a happy and healthy holiday as we prepare for Thanksgiving break next week.

Sincerely,

Kate Morris