The College is welcoming several new members to its administration this fall, including three deans.
John C. Laughton joined the College in August as the Dean of the School of the Arts and Communication. Laughton is the former dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Laughton holds advanced degrees from the University of Iowa as well as from the the Catholic University of America and has also done post-graduate work at the University of Texas, Boston College, Harvard University, and the Banff Center located in Canada.
William Keep became the Dean of the School of Business on June 15. Prior to his appointment, Keep was a professor of marketing at Quinnipiac University.
In addition to this, Keep was Quinnipiac’s associate vice president for Academic Affairs and director of Assessment for the School of Business. He holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University and a B.A. from James Madison College, a residential college at Michigan State University.
Benjamin Rifkin joined the College on July 1 as the Dean of the School of Culture and Society.
Rifkin comes to the College from Temple University, where he was most recently serving as the head of the Russian section in the University’s Department of French, German, Italian and Slavic Languages.
Rifkin also has published several works, including one on Russian film and another on Russian literature. Many of his other publications are also based on Russian and other slavic languages.
Rifkin has also served previously as vice dean for Undergraduate Affairs at Temple University and has held positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Middlebury College. He holds a Masters degree from Yale University and other advanced degrees from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Effective on Sept. 1, Mark Kiselica will officially be the new Vice Provost. He has been a part of the Counselor Education Department at the College since 1994 and has been a professor since 2002. Kiselica earned his doctorate from the Pennsylvania State University.
Also effective on Sept 1, Dr. Jon W. Stauff will be joining the College as Director of International and Off-Campus Programs.
One of Stauff’s major plans for the College is to use a new grant to establish a study abroad program intended for business majors. As of right now, most programs are designed for other majors.
Stauff holds advance degrees from the College of William and Mary and SUNY at Buffalo.
