Ramona Mellott

Graduate College gets dean

Ramona Mellott, a professor and chair for the Educational Psychology Department, has accepted the position as dean for NAU's Graduate College.

As the new dean, Mellott said she will work to increase the visibility of graduate education at both NAU's Mountain Campus and its distant learning sites.

"Strong graduate programs are important to producing a workforce with the expertise that can help us remain competitive in a global economy," Mellott said. "Graduate education is critical to U.S. higher education. We are going to see an increase in the demand for students with undergraduate and graduate degrees."

Mellott has been a professor at NAU for nine years and served for seven years as chair of the Educational Psychology Department in the College of Education. She will assume her new role on July 1.

"Ramona Mellott's understanding of graduate education and distance learning coupled with her history of successful collaborations and networking will provide strong leadership for the Graduate College," said Liz Grobsmith, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.

Mellott said she will collaborate with graduate program representatives and leaders to develop a vision and a shared set of values for graduate education to "boost efforts to assess and enhance the quality of graduate programs at NAU."

Her goals include creating graduate programs that connect the university's strengths with market demands.

"We will work to address recruitment and retention efforts for a broad and diverse graduate student population that is academically talented; and, above all, work with our institutional leaders to seek funding opportunities to increase financial support for our graduate students," Mellott said.

Under Mellott's guidance, NAU's programs in school and community counseling of the Educational Psychology Department received full national accreditation, and last year the school psychology programs received full approval from the National Association of School Psychologists for its master's and doctoral degrees. Mellott also helped to establish programs that led to increasing the number of school counselors on the Navajo Nation.

The dean of the Graduate College is a new position created from the previous position of vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate College. It has been split into two positions: dean of the Graduate College, who will report to the provost, and a vice president for research, who will report to the president.

View Mellott's resume online.