Announcing Georgetown’s New Dean of the College

July 27, 2021

Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community:

It is my privilege to announce that Rosario Ceballo, Ph.D., has been selected as the next Dean of Georgetown College. Dr. Ceballo joins our community from the University of Michigan, where she has served as Associate Dean for Social Sciences and Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies. She will begin in her new role as Dean and tenured full professor in the Department of Psychology on January 1, 2022.

Dr. Ceballo is a celebrated interdisciplinary scholar whose research has examined community violence, families, culture, and gender through a psychological lens. She has published extensively across clinical, community, developmental, and feminist psychology journals, including Developmental Psychology, Psychology of Violence, and Psychology of Women Quarterly. Dr. Ceballo is also the co-editor of a forthcoming book entitled Growing Up Latinx in the Land of Liberty: Drawing on Community and Culture to Face Contextual Challenges. During her time at the University of Michigan, she helped to launch a program on quantitative methods and the use of large data sets to address social problems, as well as an initiative focused on serving the needs of first-generation and low-income students. She served as Chair of the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies from 2015 to 2018.

Since 2018, she has served as Associate Dean for Social Sciences in the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA). In this role, she collaborated across sixteen departments and programs to coordinate academic affairs, and served on the LSA Strategic Planning Steering Committee, a college-wide strategic planning process.

Her leadership and deep commitment to diversity, inclusion, and student support has been recognized with numerous awards, including the John Dewey Award for “long-term commitment to the education of undergraduate students,” the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award “for faculty who have exhibited outstanding leadership in the area of cultural diversity,” and El Primero Award, presented by Latinx students at the University of Michigan to scholars who center Latinx voices and perspectives in their work.

Dr. Ceballo earned her doctorate degree in Clinical and Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan, where she also earned a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and is a licensed clinical psychologist.

We are deeply grateful that our community will have the opportunity to benefit from Dr. Ceballo’s extraordinary experience and expertise, and look forward to her leadership of the College.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the members of our search committee for their thoughtful engagement throughout this process, with special appreciation to Frank Vella, Ph.D., Professor and Villani Chair in Economics, for his leadership as chair. I am especially grateful to Soyica Diggs Colbert, Ph.D. (C’01), Idol Family Professor of African American Studies and Performing Arts, for her leadership as our Interim Dean and her continuing service this fall. Dr. Colbert has done extraordinary work to lead our College through this period, and I am very grateful to her and her colleagues in the College Dean’s office.

Please join me in offering Dr. Ceballo a heartfelt welcome to the Georgetown community.

You have my very best wishes.

Sincerely,

John J. DeGioia