Dr. Lena Hill, dean of Washington and Lee University’s (W&L) College of Arts and Sciences since July 2018, has been selected as the school’s new provost, effective July 1, 2021.
“I enjoy my work as a dean,” Hill said. “But I thought that it would be interesting to be able to serve in a different capacity. I realize that, in moving into the role of provost, I would have the opportunity to seamlessly support initiatives from the role of the chief academic officer.”
Hill, who is also a professor of English and Africana studies at the liberal arts university, will oversee W&L’s academic schools – the College, the Williams School and the law school – as well as a number of other offices on campus.
As dean of the College, Hill has been responsible for approximately 200 faculty. As provost, that number goes up to around 275.
This year, under her leadership, the College’s tenured and tenure-track underrepresented faculty – African American, Latinx, Native American, Alaskan, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders – increased to 10.3%, hitting double-digit percentages for the first time. It was a feat accomplished through some specific initiatives, Hill said.
“We have instituted a more rigorous and thoughtful recruitment and retention strategy in collaboration with my colleagues in Human Resources,” Hill said. “I led a college-wide opportunity hire, which is something that we really weren’t doing in terms of allowing every department and program the opportunity to apply for to recruit an opportunity hire from an underrepresented group.”
The College also joined the Gettysburg College Consortium for Faculty Diversity – for which Hill is on the steering committee – and has implemented implicit bias training for faculty search committees.
