Dear Adelphi Community,
I’m pleased to announce the appointment of Susan Dinan, PhD, as interim provost of Adelphi University. Dr. Dinan has served as dean of the Adelphi University Honors College since 2019, and her thoughtful and strategic leadership in this role has consistently diversified recruitment and strengthened student success.
As interim provost, Dr. Dinan will oversee all aspects of our academic offerings, providing a life-changing learning experience for our students and supporting the development of our faculty. Her strategic vision will be instrumental as we continue to prioritize enrollment efforts, prepare for the launch of the new Manhattan Center, engage in the Middle States Commission on Higher Education reaccreditation process, and pursue other academic and institutional goals. She joins a strong and established team in the Provost’s Office. In the coming days, I will announce an interim dean of the Honors College to replace Dr. Dinan.
Since becoming the second dean of the Honors College—succeeding founding Dean Richard Garner, PhD—Dr. Dinan and Associate Deans Craig Carson and Nicole Rudolph have spearheaded efforts to enroll students from all disciplines and backgrounds, taking a direct role in recruiting, interviewing and advising students. As a result, Honors classes have become more inclusive, aligning with Adelphi’s larger student body. Dr. Dinan is uniquely equipped to understand and advance student success, having directly worked with hundreds of students in her time as dean. At the same time, Dr. Dinan and the associate deans have supported revisions to the Honors curriculum to introduce new perspectives and experiences. Together, they have brought in new faculty to offer coursework, further enriching an already strong program.
Dr. Dinan is a former vice-chair of the faculty senate at William Paterson University and former president of the National Collegiate Honors Council, where she helped set priorities for the honors colleges and programs of more than 700 institutions across the United States, Europe and Asia. These experiences make her uniquely prepared to articulate the values of higher education and to support core tenets of the University, including academic freedom.
Before joining Adelphi, Dr. Dinan served as dean of the Pforzheimer Honors College at Pace University, where she aligned the honors colleges of the Manhattan and Pleasantville campuses. She also increased international opportunities for Pace honors students and created an honors residential community on the Westchester campus.
Dr. Dinan was previously a professor of history and served as the founding director of the University Honors College at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, for 10 years. She began her academic career at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University (now LIU Post) in 1996, where she assumed increasing responsibilities, serving as an associate professor of history, followed by assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and ultimately chair of the history department.
Dr. Dinan earned her PhD in European history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MA in European history from the University of Illinois, a BA in history from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a BS in design and environmental analysis from Cornell University. She also attended the Harvard Graduate School of Education Institute for Management and Leadership in Education in 2017.
The author of Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France: The Early History of the Daughters of Charity, published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. in 2006, Dr. Dinan has also contributed to academic journals and books centering on women and religion in Catholic Reformation Europe. Her most recent research focuses on the pedagogies that bring the most value to honors education.
Having worked closely with Dr. Dinan throughout her time at Adelphi, I’ve developed immense respect for her ability to engage with every member of our community and strategically enhance the value of our educational programs. I am confident that her academic expertise, positive energy and collaborative nature will make her an outstanding leader of the Provost’s Office.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Dinan on her appointment as interim provost and wishing her success in leading Adelphi’s academic mission.
Onwards and upwards,
Chris