Meredith College Names New Dean for the School of Arts and Humanities

Meredith College has named Sarah N. Roth as dean of the School of Arts and Humanities.

As Meredith’s largest school, the School of Arts and Humanities is comprised of nine departments with approximately 56 full-time and 47 part-time faculty members and five staff. The school, which currently offers 16 majors with six areas of specialization and 23 minors, serves approximately 440 students as majors or minors within the school. Roth will assume this role on July 1, 2017, following Garry Walton’s retirement as the school’s first dean after fourteen years of service.

As dean, Roth will oversee the school budget and be responsible for hiring, developing and supervising faculty and staff. She will also work with department heads to support programmatic growth and lead the school’s fundraising, outreach, and strategic planning efforts.

Roth will be joining Meredith from Widener University, where she was professor of history and associate dean of humanities. In her role as associate dean, Roth supervised 23 full-time and 28 part-time faculty in fine arts, modern languages, English, creative writing, philosophy, history, African and African American studies, and theatre. She managed the humanities budget, served on the dean’s executive team, and oversaw Widener’s student and faculty exchange program with the University of Greifswald in Germany.

Roth believes her administrative experience and record of serving as a collaborative partner has prepared her well to serve as dean of Meredith’s largest and most diverse school. “To me, being dean is about working with others to help lay the groundwork for faculty and students to have the most rewarding, productive experience possible,” Roth says.

Roth looks forward to serving in an academic leadership role at one of the largest women’s colleges in the U.S. “I am excited by the prospect of being part of an institution that helps young women develop into confident professionals and strong leaders,” Roth says.

Roth holds a Ph.D. in American history and an M.A. in American history from the University of Virginia. She earned her B.A. in history from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.