Bárbara M. Brizuela will serve as the 18th dean of the School of Arts and Sciences after serving as interim dean since July 2024, the university announced on Monday. A professor in the Department of Education for over 23 years and the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences since 2022, Brizuela’s appointment as dean is effective immediately.
“In each stage of [Brizuela’s] Tufts career […] her passion for education has been a constant, as have been her dedication to the research and scholarship conducted by our faculty and the success of our students,” University President Sunil Kumar and Caroline Genco, provost and senior vice president, wrote in an email to the Tufts community on Monday.
Brizuela grew up in Argentina and came to Boston in January 1995 to pursue graduate education, earning a Master of Arts in education from Tufts and a Doctor of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She became an assistant professor in Tufts’ Department of Education in 2001 and a professor of education in 2015. Brizuela served as chair of the Department of Education from 2009 to 2012 and as director of the Ph.D. in STEM Education program from 2009 to 2014.
In 2022, Brizuela was appointed to dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences — Tufts’ largest graduate school — where she oversaw master’s and Ph.D. enrollment. She helped redesign the graduate financial aid process, served on the Graduate Education Task Force and launched the Future Leaders Fellows Program, which provides full-tuition scholarships for master’s students and occupational therapy doctoral students.
In an interview with TuftsNow, Brizuela said that building and strengthening connections among Tufts’ different schools will be one of her priorities as dean. As an “interdisciplinary researcher” in areas including early childhood education and cognitive development, she said that performing interdisciplinary work is easier at Tufts than at other universities.
“Our undergrads have an opportunity to participate in research and develop relationships with researchers that is quite different from the opportunities at most liberal arts colleges,” she told TuftsNow. “Likewise, for graduate students, learning alongside more junior students who are so committed to learning provides unique opportunities for mentoring and learning with them.”
Brizuela replaces former Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James M. Glaser, who stepped down in June 2024 following a 10-year tenure.
