Oakland University names new dean for College of Arts and Sciences

Following a national search, Oakland University has selected Elaine K. Carey, Ph.D., as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“Dr. Carey’s outstanding research career and track record of academic leadership will advance the CAS as we move forward to support OU’s four strategic pillars,” said Britt Rios-Ellis, OU’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “Her cultural and linguistic strengths, quest for social justice, and work to ensure that the underrepresented have a voice in contemporary quests for equity align well with CAS’s past and future trajectory.”

She will begin on June 30.

Carey currently serves as founding dean of the College of Humanities, Education,

and Social Science at Purdue University Northwest, where she has progressed through roles of increasing responsibility since 2017.

In her current position, she has focused on a myriad of administrative responsibilities, including strategic planning, fundraising, institutional assessment, faculty development, and facilities planning and management.

Carey’s previous work includes roles as chair of the Department of History at St. John’s University in Queens, New York; vice president for the Teaching Division of the American Historical Association; cofounder and coordinator of the Joint Faculty Research Colloquium in the Social Sciences and Humanities; director of the James Guadalupe Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive in Detroit; and managing editor of the New Mexico Historical Review at the University

of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

She holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of New Mexico, as well as a master of arts with distinction in history and a bachelor of arts in international affairs from Florida State University.

Throughout her career in academia, Carey has been awarded more than 30 grants and fellowships, has authored five books, 20 scholarly articles (with four more forthcoming), and nearly 50 other publications. She has presented scholarly work at more than 90 professional conferences and meetings.

Carey succeeds retiring CAS Dean and Chief Community Engagement Officer Kevin Corcoran.