January 10, 2023 – Marist College today announced the appointment of Dr. Catherine (Katie) Gunther Kodat as Provost and Dean of Faculty. Dr. Kodat joins Marist from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, a Top 50 school in the nation for “Best Undergraduate Teaching,” based on U.S. News rankings.

There, she also served as Provost and Dean of Faculty for five years, overseeing academic affairs, a conservatory of music, a residential liberal arts college, and all full-time faculty. Her selection follows an extensive national search that drew an extremely broad, talented pool of candidates.

Dr. Kodat will report to Marist President Kevin Weinman and serve as a member of both the President’s Advisory Council and Cabinet. As Provost and Dean of Faculty, Dr. Kodat will serve as Marist’s chief academic officer and lead the vision and strategy for an academic portfolio that includes innovative curriculum, high-impact practices, and valuable experiential learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom. She will lead our expert faculty and ensure they have the appropriate resources, pedagogical support, and alignment to Marist’s academic strategy, and also will oversee the teams across student academic affairs to continue producing the stellar outcomes that have become a hallmark of Marist graduates.

“Dr. Kodat is a lifelong educator who brings to Marist a unique combination of leadership roles and work experiences in both the liberal arts and pre-professional training,” said President Weinman. “She has had great success throughout her career partnering closely with faculty and working with her fellow administrators to elevate the institutions she’s been a part of and will be instrumental in helping shape an academic vision at Marist that will accelerate students’ learning outcomes and academic success.”

“I am honored and thrilled to be selected as Marist’s Provost and Dean of Faculty,” said Dr. Kodat. “I was attracted to the College in part because of how rapidly this relatively young institution has moved to the forefront of American higher education thanks to its unique blending of the liberal arts, pre-professional education, experiential learning, and study abroad. Marist’s steadfast commitment to helping students realize their potential for creativity, ethical leadership, and civic engagement is deeply inspiring. I am eager to work closely with Marist’s superb faculty to further enhance what is already a distinctively powerful student experience.”

Dr. Kodat previously spent 17 years on the faculty at Hamilton College, rising to the rank of professor of English and American Studies and later chairing the English and Creative Writing Department. Dr. Kodat also gained valuable international experience with appointments at the University of Oxford’s Linacre College and as a Fulbright Lecturer at EÖtvÖs Loránd Tudományegyetem in Budapest, Hungary, one of the country’s largest and most prestigious public research universities. 

At both Lawrence University and Lewis & Clark College, where she served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Kodat led efforts to refine hiring guidelines for faculty searches that produced more diverse applicant pools and ultimately the hiring of more faculty of color. She also helped adopt more inclusive trainings and universal design for learning in courses in the humanities, the humanistic social sciences, and natural sciences.

Before entering higher education, Dr. Kodat was a reporter at The Baltimore Sun, covering housing, community development, policing, and LGBTQ+ rights. This role, and her experiences witnessing issues of systemic injustice and structural racism firsthand, sparked her personal devotion to advancing policies and reforms focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout her career. 

Dr. Kodat earned a B.A. in English at the University of Baltimore and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English at Boston University. She will officially assume the role of Provost and Dean of Faculty at Marist College on May 1.