New Associate Provost Will Help Oversee Curriculum

Since joining The New School nearly a decade ago, Lisa DeBenedittis has continued to move up the administrative ladder at the university. Most recently serving as associate dean of curriculum and instruction at Parsons, DeBenedittis will soon start her new position in the provost’s office, where she will play a large role in shaping and determining The New School’s curriculum in the future.

On September 26, Provost Tim Marshall announced that DeBenedittis had been promoted to associate provost for curriculum and learning. DeBenedittis will be in charge of overseeing the quality of curriculum within each of The New School’s seven divisions. She will also be chairperson of both the University Curriculum Committee and the Committee on Thematic Interdivisional Programs — more commonly known as TIPs. DeBenedittis told The Free Press that her responsibilities in the new role will include reviewing proposals for new academic programs.

In an email sent to New School faculty and staff, Marshall praised DeBenedittis’ work in improving the academic standard at Parsons, adding that her “talents and contributions are well known at the university.”

Marshall said that DeBenedittis had played a significant role in revising the undergraduate curricula at Parsons, where she has served as associate dean for curriculum and instruction since 2009. Prior to that, DeBenedittis was assistant dean for curriculum and learning at Parsons from 2007 to 2009. She started at The New School in 2002 as a Parsons adjunct faculty member.

“Lisa has been a true leader in the Parsons community since she arrived here nearly 10 years ago,” Parsons Dean Joel Towers told The Free Press in an email. “She shares the university’s dedication to advancing a curriculum that remains consistent with the school’s academic heritage, while flexibly responding to change that is occurring both within and beyond our campus.”

As associate provost of curriculum and learning, DeBenedittis will be given the opportunity to improve academic quality across the entire university. To achieve this goal, DeBenedittis told The Free Press that she first plans to “set up informational sessions with the heads of each of the divisions” to better understand the educational experiences they have to offer.

“I want to experience what it’s like to be in each [division],” DeBenedittis said. “Its size, its location, who the students are, where they hang out, who the faculty are, what the teaching spaces are like.”

DeBenedittis will also be working with the provost and leadership at each of the university’s divisions to develop new academic programs. She said one of the main items on her agenda is to add “a more robust system of [degree] minors available to students across all divisions, programs and disciplines.”