Pam Benoit, Ph.D., was named senior vice president of Academic Affairs and provost at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in May 2017. Her first day at UAB will be July 1, 2017.
Benoit joins UAB from Ohio University, where she served as executive vice president and provost for eight years.
As chief academic officer of Ohio University, Benoit led many significant initiatives, including: the conversion from quarters to semesters in 2012; development and implementation of the OHIO Guarantee, an innovative tuition and fee model through which Ohio University is helping students budget for the cost of a college education, in 2014; and creation of the nationally recognized Innovation Strategy Investment Program in 2016.
She was instrumental in transformative growth for the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine into Cleveland in 2015, where the university now partners with one of the most respected institutions in medicine, the Cleveland Clinic, to bolster the university into the forefront of medical education in Ohio and beyond.
Benoit held many leadership positions at the University of Missouri, where she chaired the Department of Communications in the College of Arts and Sciences, and served as associate and assistant dean of the Graduate School before being named executive vice president and provost at Ohio University. She received her master’s degree in communication from Central Michigan University and her Ph.D. in communication from Wayne State University. Early in her career, she served on the faculty of Bowling Green State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she also held a position in the Department of Communications.
Benoit has written or co-written a number of books, chapters, articles and reports for her research interests that include narratives, communication theory, interpersonal persuasion and argumentation, and leadership.
