Ryan Hays Named Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Deputy to the Provost

Ryan Hays, most recently of Princeton University, has been appointed vice provost for faculty development and deputy to the provost at the University of Cincinnati.

In his role as vice provost for faculty development, Hays will succeed Wayne Hall, UC vice provost and professor of English, who recently announced his return to the classroom following ten years of administrative work on faculty development.  

Santa Ono, senior vice president for academic affairs and university provost, said, “In this role, Ryan will build on the already strong foundation Wayne has put into place, and I view this appointment as a key part of my commitment to further enhance and expand faculty development across the university.”  

Hays will also serve as deputy to the provost, assisting with a variety of key functions, ranging from strategic planning to project management to communications.    

According to Ono, “Ryan is uniquely qualified for this dual role given his experience in managing faculty affairs and providing executive-level support to senior leadership. He brings a perfect blend of macro-thinking and micro-doing. But, perhaps most importantly, he is a team player at every turn.”

Said Hays, “This is an exciting time to join the UC community. The new ideas and energy converging around the

Academic Master Plan

and the continued success of the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning put UC on a very promising trajectory."

He added, "I believe deeply in the student-centered, faculty-driven team approach advocated by the provost, and I look forward to supporting UC's academic mission in every way that I can.”  

Hays has most recently served as assistant dean of the faculty at Princeton University. His administrative duties spanned all four of Princeton’s academic divisions: humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. He co-managed the university-wide teaching budget; directly managed the teaching assistant budget; assisted with the annual appointment and reappointment of all lecturers and visiting professors; and oversaw requests for sabbaticals, workload relief and term extensions. He was also responsible for appointing and reappointing the leaders of academic centers, institutes and programs, as well as the members of departmental advisory councils.

Prior to his stint at Princeton, Hays was on staff with the Board of Trustees at Emory University. His work focused on strategic planning, trustee recruitment and board development. He directly supported several trustee groups, including the Executive Committee, the Governance Committee, the Public Policy Advisory Group and the Leadership Task Force on Trustee Recruitment. He also launched the Faculty Roundtable, a trustee-hosted event aimed at introducing trustees to innovative teaching and research around campus. At Emory, Hays taught in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, one of the oldest interdisciplinary doctoral programs in the country, and he also co-wrote the strategic plan and environmental assessment for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Prior to Emory, Hays served as special assistant to the dean of the Tucker Foundation at Dartmouth College.

Born and raised in southern Indiana, Hays received a baccalaureate in religious studies from DePauw University and a doctoral degree in psychoanalytic studies from Emory University.  

One of the best parts of his new role, according to Hays, will be a return to the Midwest.  “I must say that it’s nice to be back home,” he stated.

Hays begins his new post as of today.