PLAINFIELD, Vt. – Goddard College President Robert P. Kenny today announced the appointment of Lewis Jones, Ph.D., as the Chief Academic Officer and Academic Dean of the College. Jones joins the College on September 14.
“We are extremely happy that Dr. Jones has agreed to assume this pivotal role at Goddard College,” President Kenny said. “He has deep experience in academic and faculty leadership, program assessment and enrollment management. His enthusiasm for progressive and adult education, as well as his understanding of the complexity and challenges of operating a liberal arts institution in this political and economic climate, will be valuable foundations on which Goddard can map a sustainable future.”
The Chief Academic Officer is the senior member of the president’s leadership team whose primary role is to provide academic leadership for the College and attend to the overall academic integrity of the College’s academic programs. The dean supervises program directors and the staff in the Office of Academic Affairs and reports to the Board of Trustees as an ex officio member of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee.
Jones was previously the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bluefield State College in West Virginia, the vice president for academic affairs at Wilberforce University in Ohio, director of academic affairs and chief academic officer at Webster University in Missouri, and dean of faculty at Grantham University in Kansas, among other senior-level academic positions.
As a college professor, he taught philosophy of education, policy and history, as well as urban planning and development, at Mankato State University, Cal State San Bernardino, Central Connecticut State University at New Britain, and the University of Louisville. He received tenure twice: He was a tenured professor of graduate education in the Department of Advanced Studies at Cal State San Bernardino and a tenured associate professor in the School of Urban Planning at the University of Louisville.
His scholarship on innovations in higher education have been published in the Journal of Public Personnel Management, Journal Resources in Education, Scholar and Educator Journal, and the Journal of the Midwest History of Education Society, among others.
Jones has a Ph.D. in Education Policy & Analysis and Higher Education Administration from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in American History and African-American History from North Carolina Central University, and a B.S. in Social Science with a minor in History from St. Paul’s College.
About Goddard College
Initially founded in 1863 as the Goddard Seminary in Barre, Vt., Goddard College moved to its current Plainfield campus and was chartered in 1938 by founding President Royce “Tim” Pitkin. In 1963, Goddard became the first U.S. college to offer low-residency adult degree programs. Goddard now offers accredited MA, MFA, BA and BFA degree programs from the main campus in Plainfield, Vermont and sites in Seattle and Port Townsend, Washington. The low-residency education model offers the best of on-campus and distance education, with experienced faculty advisors, rigorous on-campus residencies, and the freedom to study from anywhere.
