At the heart of every successful organization is strong leadership. UNB brings together the top experts in their respective fields to serve as deans, offering guidance to faculties and supporting the university’s academic interests. Our deans are leaders, mentors, and supporters.
Deans at UNB are well known for their extraordinary work in making every student’s experience at the university positive and steering their faculties in the right direction. They are dedicated to providing support and knowledge to students, researchers and faculty members.
UNB is proud to welcome four new academics as deans at the university, who will provide leadership and expertise to their faculties and help the university as a whole achieve its academic goals.
Dr. Michael van Zyll de Jong has been appointed dean of the faculty of science, applied science and engineering on the Saint John campus in August, coming to UNB from Memorial University, where he served as associate professor of applied ecology in the School of Science and Environment at Grenfell Campus.
Dr. van Zyll de Jong is committed to providing a quality educational experience for students. His teaching and research focuses on a variety of environmental and natural resource areas including fisheries, forestry, climate change and policy development and has published extensively in these fields.
Dr. Luigi Benedicenti joined our Fredericton campus as dean of computer science in July. His teaching and research interests include software engineering, augmented reality for assistance providers, and virtual reality for scientific visualization and simulation.
Dr. Benedicenti is an internationally renowned expert in, among other areas, software systems and new media technology. He is deeply committed to excellence in the classroom and collaborative decision-making.
Long-time UNB professor and acting dean of arts Dr. Joanne Wright was appointed dean of arts on the Fredericton campus in July. Dr. Wright, a professor of political science, has previously served as acting associate dean of arts and associate dean of arts at UNB.
Working collaboratively with students, faculty and staff, she believes in the value of the humanities and social sciences and is committed to raising their profile on campus and in the wider community.
John Kleefeld joined as dean of law in July, Prof. Kleefeld comes to UNB from the University of Saskatchewan where he served as associate law professor with experience in teaching tort law, civil procedure, dispute resolution, legal research, and judgment writing.
In his role as an educator, Prof. Kleefeld is creative and forward-thinking. He received the University of Saskatchewan Provost’s Award for Outstanding Innovation in Learning in 2012 and the national Brightspace Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning in 2015.
We are pleased to have such outstanding individuals as leaders in the UNB family.
