Gregory Dunaway, an award-winning educator and sociologist, has been named permanent dean of West Virginia University’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, effective March 31, 2016.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Dunaway to West Virginia University,” Provost Joyce McConnell said Tuesday in announcing the appointment. “He has the rare and valuable combination of extensive experience and a strong vision, exactly what is needed to guide a large and complex academic unit like our Eberly College.”

President Gordon Gee also expressed enthusiasm about the appointment. “Greg Dunaway is exactly who we need to lead our Eberly College today. He has a track record of excellence in his field and in higher education. I know he will continue that record here at West Virginia University and that the exceptional faculty and students of the Eberly College will reap the benefit of his experience.”

The college of arts and sciences was established at WVU in 1895. The name was changed to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences in 1993 in commemoration of the generosity of the Eberly family, the Eberly Foundation, and the Eberly Family Charitable Trust. Today, Eberly is WVU’s largest college, employing more than 435 faculty and offering 36 undergraduate majors and 32 graduate programs.

Eberly’s complexity meant it was even more important to find the right leadership for the unit, McConnell said. “That’s what made Dr. Dunaway rise to the top of our search very quickly. He has experience, yes, but even more than that he has great wisdom about how to lead. He also has a deep appreciation for all the disciplines that are housed in Eberly, from the humanities to the social sciences to the hard sciences.”

Dunaway is the current dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Mississippi State University. Prior to his appointment as dean in 2013, he served as the associate dean for academic and student affairs (2011-2012) and was also the Thomas Bailey Professor of Sociology and former department head of sociology (2008-2011). He is also a Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Center at MSU.

His research interests include examining social factors associated with crime and delinquency; trends, inequality and crime and justice; and criminal justice policy. He has conducted research on a number of justice programs in Mississippi, including performing an evaluation of Mississippi’s Drug Court Program, a survey of Mississippi’s Juvenile Detention Facilities and a study on disproportionate minority contact within the Mississippi juvenile justice system. Dunaway has won both teaching and administrative service awards at Mississippi State. He is the immediate past president of the Southern Criminal Justice Association. He earned his B.A. from Loyola University Maryland (1982) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Cincinnati (1988, 1991).

“I am both humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve as the next dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences,” Dunaway said. “I was highly impressed with both the quality of the faculty and programs of Eberly. It is clear that the college and WVU is on a great trajectory. I am eager to work with the faculty, staff, administration, and students to continue to build on the tradition of excellence in Eberly and West Virginia University. I look forward to being a Mountaineer!”

With Dunaway’s appointment, interim dean Maryanne Reed will be stepping back into her permanent position as dean of the Reed College of Media at WVU.

“I can’t say enough about Reed as a leader,” McConnell said. “She had already proven herself as dean of our Reed College, establishing the college at the vanguard of media education, when I asked her to serve as the interim in Eberly. She has led the college during a transition period with a blend of decisiveness and great attention to the individual people who make the college great. We are very grateful to her for taking on the interim role.”

-WVU-

ac/12/15/15

CONTACT: University Relations/News
304.293.6997

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.