Hopkins’ Krieger School gets new dean

Beverly Wendland has been named dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University.

Wendland, who has been serving as interim dean since July, brings to the role “a combination of vision, skill, collegiality and purposeful action,” JHU President Ronald J. Daniels said in a statement Thursday.

“Beverly Wendland is the leader that the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences needs and deserves at this moment,” Daniels said in the statement.

“Her deep passion and high aspirations for the school, her commitment to the institutional goals we all share, and her warm and collegial spirit will serve the Krieger School and our entire university enormously well in the years to come,” Daniels said.

Wendland, who succeeds Katherine Newman as dean, has been on the Hopkins faculty since 1998. In 2009, she took over as chair of the biology department, where she led a strategic planning process and improved the curriculum, officials said.

She was an “early champion” of a university-wide study — the Gateway Science Initiative — of ways to more effectively teach introductory science courses, Daniels said.

Wendland said in a statement that she is humbled to serve as the leader of the arts and sciences school, and that she is excited to help show others the value of a liberal arts education.

“A robust liberal arts education prepares one for just about any sort of career,” she said. “We place high value on critical-thinking skills, decision-making, reading comprehension, writing and other forms of communication. Our goal is to prepare our students not only for their first job, but for the positions they will hold in 10 and 20 years as well.”