Welcoming J.D. Bowers as Dean of the Honors College

June 8, 2022

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Community,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jerome David (J.D.) Bowers II as Dean of the Honors College, a role he will assume July 1. He will also serve as Professor of the Practice in the Departments of Africana Studies and History, School of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Bowers comes to Rutgers from The University of Missouri (MU), where he led its Honors College through a six-year period of enrollment growth during which he oversaw a significant increase in entering student achievement, major revisions in curriculum, and responsiveness to the challenges of social and cultural movements. He raised more than $12 million to support the college’s programming, established 10 new scholars’ programs, and helped students contribute more than 24,000 hours annually to the institution’s research mission. He currently serves MU as Professor of Black Studies and History, and as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Black Studies.

He is a nationally recognized innovator in undergraduate research and scholars’ programs, having created the MU Honors College’s ASH Scholars program in which arts, social science, and/or humanities students collaboratively work as members of a faculty-led research or design team; and MU’s Sankofa Scholars program. As the lead faculty mentor for prominent programs including MU’s Stamps Scholars, Brazeal Scholars, and Blatchford Scholars, as well as Northern Illinois University’s McKearn Fellows Program, he focused on ensuring the inclusion of Black and Native American students.

Dr. Bowers currently serves as executive director of the Council on Honors Education (CoHE) and on the Honors Education at Research Universities’ biennial conference advisory board. CoHE, which he co-founded in 2018, is one of the nation’s two leading professional associations for honors colleges and programs, and is dedicated to member schools’ land-grant and public missions, and the unique ways honors education serves institutions and their students.

Dr. Bowers succeeds Honors College Administrative Dean Paul Gilmore who, with then-Academic Dean Matt Matsuda, led the Honors College’s opening in Fall 2015 as a distinctive and vibrant living-learning experience. Deans Gilmore and Matsuda and their team made many notable accomplishments in building the Honors College to serve 2,000 high-achieving students each year with a community focused on scholarship, community service, and professional opportunities.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Bowers, thanking Dr. Gilmore for his distinguished service, and expressing gratitude to the Honors College Dean Search Committee, which was chaired by School of Engineering Dean Thomas Farris. I look forward to Dean Bowers’ contributions to our university’s mission of excellence in education, research, and public service.

Sincerely,

Francine Conway, Ph.D.
Chancellor-Provost, Rutgers University­–New Brunswick