UMD names Anne Stevens next dean of arts college

University of Minnesota Duluth turned to a dean with experience managing more than 5,000 students and budgets exceeding $20 million as it prepared to steer its College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences through enrollment pressure and questions about career value. Anne Stevens, PhD, was named the next dean of CAHSS, pending approval by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, and is scheduled to begin June 29.

The appointment lands at a moment when the college’s role on campus carries outsized weight. CAHSS includes nearly 40 majors, 33 minors and three certificate programs across 10 departments, making it one of UMD’s most visible academic units and a major feeder for students weighing whether to build their careers in Duluth or leave for larger markets.

Stevens arrives with a background that blends faculty work, administrative leadership and budget oversight. At the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, she served as dean of the College of Public Affairs and Education from 2025 to 2026. Before that, she led the College of Letters and Science from January 2022 through June 2025, overseeing 26 academic departments and nine interdisciplinary programs that included more than 40 undergraduate majors and 10 graduate programs. Her portfolio there covered more than 400 faculty and staff, more than 5,000 students across three campuses, and budgets totaling more than $20 million.

Her earlier work included service at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she was a professor of English from 2017 to 2021 and chaired the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender and Ethnic Studies from 2018 to 2021. Stevens earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Chicago and both her master’s and PhD in English from New York University.

UMD’s leadership said the hire comes with expectations beyond routine administration. Rebecca Ropers, UMD’s executive vice chancellor and provost, said Stevens brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and will strengthen the college and the broader Minnesota community. Stevens said she was thrilled to join UMD and looked forward to working with faculty, staff and students on the college’s future.

The change also closes a stretch of interim leadership. Jennifer Brady has served as interim dean since 2024 after Jeremy Youde returned to UMD in 2019 and led the college as dean. The transition comes as UMD reported nearly 2,300 new undergraduate students for the 2025-26 academic year, its largest incoming class in recent years, and as the college moves ahead with Humanities in Action, a $2.5 million grant-backed program that will create a centralized internship center and provide paid internships to hundreds of humanities majors over five years.