DENTON (UNT), Texas — Holly M. Hutchins has been named vice provost for faculty success at the University of North Texas. Her appointment begins July 12.
A proud UNT alumna, Hutchins has dedicated her career to developing and mentoring faculty through collaborative leadership and a strategic commitment to institutional equity.
“Faculty Success has undergone a tremendous amount of growth and transformation in the past year,” UNT Provost Jennifer Cowley said. “We’ve opened critical dialogues and launched an innovative professional development portfolio, the Anti-Bias and Cultural Awareness Program, to build a workplace culture that promotes equity and inclusion. We are working to meet the needs of our diverse campus community. With Dr. Hutchins’ insight and expertise, we will continue to expand our faculty support systems and strengthen UNT’s reputation as one of the best places to work.”
Hutchins comes to UNT from the University of Houston (a Carnegie-ranked Tier One and Minority-Serving Institution), where she has served as professor and chair of the Department of Human Development and Consumer Sciences. As the vice provost for faculty success, Hutchins will lead the numerous programs and initiatives that support faculty of all ranks in their teaching, scholarly and leadership endeavors. In addition to steering academic policy and serving as an information resource for faculty and administrators, she will oversee faculty mentoring programs, professional development, promotion and tenure, recognition and awards, affinity groups, campus climate surveys and search committee training.
Hutchins always has been attracted to the faculty side of academic affairs, eager to connect with her peers and explore opportunities for growth and improvement through different lenses — something she attributes to her experience as a doctoral student at UNT.
“I was drawn to this role because I want to enact a faculty learning and development focus from a strategic perspective,” Hutchins said. “I’ve enjoyed watching UNT succeed in many ways over the last decade, becoming a Carnegie Tier One research university and developing an array of faculty and student success initiatives. I wanted my next career step to be at an institution that is committed to cultivating a caring and inclusive climate, and UNT is doing important work in this area. And yes, it feels good to be home.”
ABOUT HOLLY M. HUTCHINS
Returning to Mean Green country feels natural for Hutchins, who earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at UNT. After completing her doctorate in applied technology, training and development, she spent 17 years at the University of Houston, where she served as professor and chair of the Department of Human Development and Consumer Sciences in the College of Technology.
As department chair, Hutchins’ forward-thinking leadership was transformative, resulting in an increase in tenure-track faculty size and diversity; an equitable pay increase for adjunct faculty; the development of new faculty research labs; an increase in publications, grant proposals and collaborations; and improvements to technology access and e-learning classroom spaces. She also organized a series of faculty forums featuring experts on student engagement and social justice in virtual learning.
From 2014 to 2020, Hutchins served as lead co-principal investigator for the Center for ADVANCING UH Faculty Success, a National Science Foundation-funded initiative designed to support women faculty in traditional STEM and social/behavioral science (SBS) fields. In this role, she worked closely with leaders throughout the UH System to increase the recruitment and retention of Black and Latinx tenure-track women faculty university-wide; increase the number of STEM and SBS women faculty advancement to full professor rank and in administrative leadership positions; and design policies, trainings and workshops to improve the faculty climate toward inclusivity and equity.