UW-EC names new dean of College of Arts and Sciences
May 5—UW-Eau Claire has hired Dr. Aleks Sternfeld-Dunn as new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Sternfeld-Dunn will begin in the position on July 1.
He has been director of Wichita State University's School of Music in Wichita, Kan., since 2018, where he is also an associate professor of music, according to UW-Eau Claire.
The university said Sternfeld-Dunn will replace Dr. Rodd Freitag, professor of political science, who has served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for the past three years after the university's previous dean, Dr. David Leaman, left in May 2018.
The College of Arts and Sciences encompasses about 325 staff; 170 major, minor and certificate undergraduate programs; and three graduate programs. It has 19 academic departments and multiple interdisciplinary programs. It is the university's largest college, UW-Eau Claire wrote in a news release.
"I am energized by the opportunity to partner with the faculty, staff and students in the College of Arts and Sciences and discover our new identity, post-pandemic and at the start of a new academic, strategic and EDI plan," Sternfeld-Dunn said in a statement.
Sternfeld-Dunn earned a bachelor's degree in music from California State University East Bay in Hayward, Calif., and a master's in music composition from Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. He earned a doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Conn.
"Dr. Sternfeld-Dunn is well-grounded in the liberal arts traditions while being a visionary in the 21st-century narrative of what it means to be liberally educated," said Dr. Patricia Kleine, UW-Eau Claire provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.