OSU names Toni Doolen dean of the University Honors College
By Mark Floyd, 541-737-0788
Source: Sabah Randhawa, 541-737-2111; Toni Doolen, 541-737-5641
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Toni Doolen, an Oregon State University engineering professor who has been associate dean of the University Honors College since September 2010, was named by OSU to head the nationally recognized honors program.
Doolen succeeds Dan Arp, who recently was named dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
The University Honors College has become a national model for honors programs. It has been a magnet for high achieving students, particularly from Oregon high schools. The OSU program also draws some of the university’s top faculty to teach the small, interactive classes, and to mentor students one-on-one during their thesis experience.
“The University Honors College has enjoyed great success and applications are at an all-time high,” said Sabah Randhawa, OSU provost and executive vice president. “Toni Doolen has played a role in that recent success and she will help us continue the momentum as we seek to increase our enrollment of high achieving students in the college and at OSU, and continue to improve the impact of the program on our teaching and learning environment.”
Doolen has been on the faculty at Oregon State since 2001, and is a professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, where she also has been associate head for undergraduate programs.
Prior to joining the OSU faculty, she had a successful career in private industry, working as a process engineer, a manufacturing systems engineer, and a manager with Hewlett-Packard – with the Optical Communications Division in San Jose, Calif., and the Inkjet Supplies Business Unit in Corvallis.
She earned her Ph.D. in industrial engineering at OSU in 2001, just before joining the faculty. Doolen has two bachelor’s degrees from Cornell University, and a master’s degree from Stanford.
The University Honors College was established at Oregon State in 1995 by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education. It enrolls about 800 students, many of whom were valedictorians or salutatorians at their high schools.
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About the University Honors College: The University Honors College awards OSU’s most prestigious undergraduate degree, the Honors Baccalaureate – one of only a dozen such degrees in the nation. Honors students are drawn from all majors across the campus, holding dual citizenship in their academic department and in Honors. Honors graduates complete a thesis and leave OSU leadership-ready.
