Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Ruth Feingold as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at Grinnell College.

Dr. Feingold currently serves as Dean of the College and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Willamette University in Salem, OR, where she has been a long-standing strategic leader. Her past roles include serving as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and as special assistant to the president responsible for academic integration during the university’s merger process with the Pacific Northwest College of the Arts.  She was instrumental in the creation of a holistic first-year experience linking academic and student life components and spearheaded the development of new major programs in public health, data science, and musical theatre. She also served as co-principal investigator for the Northwest Five Colleges Consortium. She previously served at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in multiple leadership roles. 

As Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, Dr. Feingold will work to ensure that faculty members have the time and resources to fully explore and create knowledge, encourage interdepartmental collaboration and educational partnerships, and foster inclusive and sustainable academic governance.

A scholar of postcolonial and contemporary British literature, Dr. Feingold’s work focuses on the interconnections of space, place, and gender in the context of empire and its aftermath, with a particular interest in children’s literature. She holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in English language and literature from the University of Chicago.

Jeff Kessner led this search with Andy Marshall and Jenny Rubin.