Associate Dean Sarah T. Lubienski has been selected as interim dean of the University’s Graduate College to succeed Dean Deba Dutta, who accepted the position of provost at Purdue University.

Lubienski will begin her term as interim dean “designate” July 1. She will become interim dean pending approval of the Board of Trustees at its July 23 meeting in Chicago, according to a press release.

Lubienski, a faculty member at the University since 2004, is a professor of curriculum and instruction and has served as the Graduate College’s associate dean since 2012.

Provost Ilesanmi Adesida said he has every confidence in her ability to maintain the high standards of the Graduate College and build upon its already strong foundation.

“Sarah is an accomplished scholar who already is familiar with the issues and workings of the Graduate College and campus as a whole,” Adesida said.

Lubienski’s research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, the Illinois State Board of Higher Education, the Fulbright Program and the U.S. Department of Education. She is the principal investigator and director of the IES-funded Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Mathematics Education.

Lubienski earned her doctoral and master’s degree from Michigan State University and her bachelor’s degree from Northern Michigan University.

Adesida said Dutta had led the Graduate College during a significant time of transformation of graduate education in the U.S. He noted that Dutta, dean since 2009, had helped increase internal and external fellowships for graduate students, led the review of the doctoral program and established an office to support postdoctoral researchers.

“The period under his leadership has been one of academic innovation in both how we prepare graduate students and in how we recruit and support them,” Adesida said. “We wish him much success.”