Dr. Gayle Ormiston, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Marshall, said Todd will start her new job Aug. 1, 2009. She also will hold a faculty appointment as full professor in Marshall’s Department of Religious Studies.

“Dr. Mary Todd is an experienced faculty member and university administrator who has significant background in honors programming,” Ormiston said. “I am very excited about the possibilities the creation of the Honors College presents to the University and I am very pleased that Dr. Todd will join Marshall to help us navigate the process of building the Honors College as its Founding Dean.  She will be a great addition to the University community.”

Marshall’s Center for Academic Excellence will be changed to the Honors College, which will house all honors programs, including the Society of Yeager Scholars. Ormiston said changing the status of the Center for Academic Excellence to an Honors College will bring more visibility of Marshall University to a segment of prospective students whose high school records and test scores place them within the category of honors students.

Todd will collaborate with the provost office, the college deans, department chairs and faculty to design the Honors College.  This design effort should result in a strategic plan for the Honors College that will guide its development for at least three years.

The plan is to have the Honors College in place for opening in fall 2010. Honors students will be admitted as usual but they will be in the Honors College, not the Center for Academic Excellence. The administrative structure of the college will be determined through the strategic planning process.

“I was attracted to Marshall by the commitment of President Stephen Kopp and Provost Ormiston to establish an Honors College to build on the already strong reputation of the Center for Academic Excellence and the Yeager Scholars Program,” Todd said. “Honors education serves the entire university as a laboratory for teaching and learning through its model of excellence and innovation.

“I am delighted to have been invited to serve as Founding Dean of the Honors College and I look forward to working together with faculty, staff and students as the college takes its place in the Marshall community.”

Before going to Ohio Dominican in 2004, Todd served for two years as Assistant Vice President for Academics at Concordia University-Chicago, where she was responsible for all mission-specific and interdisciplinary curricula and programs while serving as Director of the Honors Program (from 1998 to 2004) and a member of the faculty.

Todd received her bachelor of arts in history in 1969 from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind., and her master of general studies in 1990 from Roosevelt University in Chicago. She earned her Ph.D. in American history in 1996 from the University of Illinois at Chicago.