Following a comprehensive national search, La Salle has named Pamela E. Barnett, Ph.D., as Dean of its School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Barnett begins at La Salle effective July 9, 2018.

“I am confident that Dr. Barnett will bring vision, creativity, energy, and collaborative leadership to our largest school and epicenter of our liberal arts education. We know she will continue to make diversity, inclusion, and healthy intergroup engagement a focus at La Salle as it has been in each of her prior roles,” said Brian Goldstein, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at La Salle.

For three years beginning in 2014, Dr. Barnett was the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Trinity Washington University. Among her many achievements there, Dr. Barnett created a holistic strategic plan for student enrollment and retention; led faculty through a first-year general education curriculum redesign and implementation; initiated and implemented adoption of a new professional advising model; and created the structure and support for robust faculty development. Overall retention increased by four percent, first to second year persistence increased by eight percent, and over $1.4 million in grants were awarded.

“When I read the strategic plan Momentum 2022, and saw the University’s aspiration to be one of the nation’s preeminent teaching and learning institutions, I knew La Salle was where I needed to be,” Dr. Barnett said. “In my vision, the members of the La Salle community will, of course, gain and produce knowledge and build cognitive skills, but also develop as human beings who can make common cause with others to make the world a better place.”