Jody Roy named interim vice president and dean of faculty

Professor of Communication and Assistant Dean of Faculty Jody Roy has been tapped to serve as interim vice president and dean of faculty at Ripon College. She began her new role on August 4.

Roy, also the Victor and Carrie Palmer Endowed Chair for Leadership Values, replaces Gerald “Jerry” Seaman, who stepped down as vice president and dean of faculty at the end of July after serving eight years in that position to lead Harlaxton College, the British campus of the University of Evansville.

“Jody Roy is an outstanding teacher and scholar who has influenced a generation of students who have taken her courses in the Communication Department,” said President Zach Messitte. “Jody’s personal and professional commitment to Ripon College runs deep and I look forward to working with her this year.”

She began her tenure at Ripon College in 1992 as an assistant professor of communication. In 2006, she assumed the additional role of faculty development coordinator and one year later took on duties as assistant dean of faculty, where she actively serves as a mentor to new faculty members.

Roy has had a profound influence on her students as both a dynamic and demanding teacher and caring mentor. Over the past 22 years, she has taken a vested interest in guiding her students through the job search and graduate school application process on to successful and rewarding careers in academia as well as the public and private sectors.

In recognition of her significant achievements in teaching, the Carnegie Foundation in 2005 named Roy “Professor of the Year” for the state of Wisconsin.

Roy publishes in a wide variety of genres, from traditional scholarly texts to mass-market creative non-fiction. Her areas of interest include the communication of pro-/anti-violence messages in media and popular culture and communication strategies of American social movements. Her collaborators on research and writing projects extend beyond traditional academics. She most recently collaborated with a group of more than two dozen inmates. Yet, while Roy’s publishing outlets and collaborators are diverse, all her work is unified by her driving purpose: to give voice to—and tap the expertise of–the people we too often don’t hear and, in doing so, to help people break free from lives of crime.

Roy earned her B.A. at Illinois College and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Indiana University.

The College will launch a national search for a permanent vice president and dean of faculty this fall.