Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke College Office of Communications and Marketing
Lisa Sullivan has been named provost and dean of faculty at the College following Dorothy Mosby.
By Jesse Hausknecht-Brown ’25
Features Editor & Layout Editor
On April 13, 2022, Lisa Sullivan, the current vice president for academic affairs, professor of economic history, R. Michael Shanahan dean of the faculty and Willard W. Keith Jr. fellow in the humanities at Harvey Mudd College, was appointed provost and dean of faculty at Mount Holyoke College.
Sullivan will succeed Dorothy Mosby, who has served as interim dean of faculty since the summer of 2020, when Jon Western stepped down from the position. Sullivan will start at Mount Holyoke on Aug. 1, 2022.
“[Sullivan] brings to Mount Holyoke College a wealth of experience from her service as dean of the faculty at Harvey Mudd,” President Sonya Stephens said in a press release to the College community. “There, she led a faculty body of productive and engaged scholars who pushed the boundaries of their disciplines, pioneered innovation within classrooms and laboratories, and mentored a committed and motivated student body. … I know the College will be in very good hands when she joins the community.”
Sullivan received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Vassar College and earned her master’s degree in economics and doctorate in economic history from the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the history of work ethics, the concept of work, the economics of higher education and the political economy of utopian communities, according to Harvey Mudd’s website. Her research has been published in many journals, including The American Review of Canadian Studies, Labour/Le Travail: Journal of Canadian Labour Studies, Cîteaux in de Nederlanden and Ontario History.
In 1989, Sullivan started her career at the State University of New York at Fredonia as an assistant professor of economics. She began at Harvey Mudd College in 1990 as an assistant professor of economics and advanced to associate professor in 1995.
“I am thrilled to join Mount Holyoke College,” Sullivan said in a press release to the community. “The College thrives because of its exceptional students, faculty and staff. The faculty are innovative thinkers dedicated to their students as well as active scholars, research scientists and visionary artists passionate about collaborating with students in their fields. Mount Holyoke is a community where members actively reach across disciplines to solve problems creatively and make positive change for all — an approach that has been at the heart of my career as both a faculty member and an academic leader.”
KC Haydon, an associate professor of psychology and education and co-chair of the search committee, expressed excitement about the transition going into next year.
“We have an opportunity to direct our energies toward our most important and meaningful priorities and strengthen the core of who we are as an institution. I am excited to do that work with Dean Sullivan, Interim President Tatum and everyone else in our community,” Haydon said.
Haydon looks forward to seeing how Sullivan implements her experience in studying healthy work culture at the College. Haydon explained that Sullivan aims to create “healthy excellence” in the Mount Holyoke community.
“Dr. Sullivan is a talented and experienced dean who understands the needs of faculty, students and staff at liberal arts colleges with unique identities, like Mount Holyoke,” Haydon said. “There is a lot of enthusiasm for Dr. Sullivan’s innovative ideas about who we are and where we’re headed. I’m eager to roll up my sleeves and get started.”
The search committee consisted of seven faculty members, two staff members, two administrators and Administrative Assistant Briana Chace ’17, who provided additional administrative support. The committee partnered with Storbeck Search, a firm that assists nonprofit organizations and educational institutions in searching for job candidates.
“As a group, we knew that the community’s confidence and trust in the new dean would begin with their confidence and trust in the integrity of the search process. Our goal was to have a transparent, inclusive search process that incorporated the perspectives of all constituencies,” Haydon explained.
The search committee held open meetings to hear from Mount Holyoke community members about what they would like to see in a dean of faculty. They had conversations with faculty, staff, students, past and current deans and staff in the dean of faculty’s office. After hearing what community members were looking for in a leader, they created a position specification that Haydon described as similar to a long-form job ad.
At the beginning of the spring semester, the search committee short-listed a group of candidates and conducted in-depth interviews with them over Zoom. Then, four candidates were chosen to visit the campus and give public presentations. They also met with faculty, staff, students, members of the cabinet and Stephens. The search committee evaluated each candidate, taking community feedback into consideration, and reported their evaluation to Stephens, who made the final decision.
Stephens extended her thanks to Mosby for her work as the interim dean of faculty. “As we welcome [Sullivan] to the Mount Holyoke community, I wish to thank Dr. Dorothy Mosby for her steady leadership as interim dean since August 2020,” Stephens wrote in a letter to the community. “The entire Mount Holyoke community is indebted to [Mosby] for her willingness to step in at an extraordinary moment for the College, and we all have benefited from her deep commitment to our mission and her care and concern for our faculty, staff, students and graduates alike.”
Beyond the statement released by Stephens, the College’s communications staff was unavailable for comment on the transition.
“I think Lisa Sullivan’s background as a historian of economics who spent her career at a STEM-focused liberal arts college serves as an inspirational role model to our community as she can compellingly speak about many different forms of pedagogy and ways of engaging with scholarship,” Katherine Aidala, director of the Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab, Kennedy-Shelkunoff professor of physics and member of the search committee, said.
Haydon described the dean of faculty job as “a tough job full of difficult decisions that impact every level of the College.” She is committed to working to make this a smooth transition. Haydon said, “In my view, it's important that we build constructive communication and collaborations with the dean and provide lasting support during her transition to MHC and beyond.”