Welcoming Dr. Helen Vallianatos as Interim Associate Dean, Education

The College of Social Sciences is excited to announce that Dr. Helen Vallianatos will serve as the Interim Associate Dean, Education until December 31, 2023.

A professor in the Department of Anthropology, Dr. Vallianatos has recently served as Acting Vice-Provost and Dean of Students, after serving for a number of years as Associate Dean of Students, where she worked to connect the Office of the Dean of Students with faculty and staff across campus to ensure that student needs and issues were being addressed, partnered with colleagues to support student mental health service transformation and assessed how to improve the student experience at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Vallianatos has previously served as Associate Chair (Undergraduate Programs) in the Department of Anthropology, during which time she worked to further develop the experiential learning component of the BA Honours program, while also incorporating community-service learning in many of her undergraduate and graduate courses. A past winner of the Faculty of Arts teaching excellence award, she is committed to building connections between class materials and local contexts, while creating engaging learning environments. These commitments are echoed in her research program, where she works in teams that cross disciplinary boundaries and partner with community leaders and organizations to improve understandings of how cultural constructions of food and gender shape people's health practices. Her contributions were also recognized with a Faculty of Arts research excellence award.

“I am so appreciative of Dr. Vallianatos’s willingness to provide leadership and guidance to our Office of Education during this crucial time period while we look for a permanent position,” says Dean Marvin Washington. “I know Helen’s impact on our college will be immediate as she provides her expertise on how to maximize the student experience and expand experiential learning opportunities.”