Kecia M. Thomas has been named dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Thomas will assume her new role on August 1.
Professor Thomas currently serves as senior associate dean in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She is the division dean for the social and behavioral sciences and also manages the college’s faculty affairs functions, its diversity and its inclusion strategy, and she is a liaison to the faculty senate. Dr. Thomas is a professor of industrial/organizational psychology and African American studies at the University of Georgia. She is the author of Diversity Dynamics in the Workplace (Wadsworth Publishing, 2004).
“I am honored to be named the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UAB,” Dr. Thomas said. “Colleges of Arts and Sciences are the intellectual foundation of higher education. I am very much looking forward to collaborating with my brilliant colleagues in the arts, humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and the natural sciences in creating new opportunities to serve our students and the Birmingham community through our instruction, research, discovery and creative activities. Likewise, I look forward to joining the impressive community of deans and senior campus leadership in meeting the grand challenge of the university in creating a healthier community locally and globally.”
Dr. Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from Pennsylvania State University.
