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BIDDEFORD, Maine

Rider University dean chosen as next dean of UNE’s College of Arts and Sciences

Jonathan Millen

The University of New England is pleased to announce that Jonathan H. Millen, Ph.D., current dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, has been chosen as the next dean of UNE’s College of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1. 

Millen joined the Rider faculty in 1991, first serving as a professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism before being appointed to the chair of the department and then associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Education, and Sciences. He assumed his current deanship in 2016. Millen is the chair of Rider’s First Year Experience Task Force and recently chaired the committee on Academic Excellence and Engaged Learning for the university’s strategic planning process. 

“I am fully confident that Dean Millen will be an exceptional fit for the position of Arts and Sciences dean,” said UNE Provost Joshua W. Hamilton, Ph.D. “His credentials speak volumes, and his style of dynamic administrative leadership will be a tremendous asset to both the college and the university as a whole.”

In addition to teaching a wide array of communication courses at Rider, Millen is a member of the university’s Law and Justice Program, for which he created a course on mediation, and the American Studies Program, for which he created a course titled The Social Impact of Rock and Roll. He also is a faculty member in Rider’s Baccalaureate Honors Program.

In 1997, Millen received Rider’s award for distinguished teaching and in 2000 was granted the university’s award for distinguished service. He was also named to the Princeton Review’s Best 300 Professors. An active member in the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) since 2011, Millen was elected to its board of directors in 2016. He directed the 2016 CCAS Seminar for Department Chairs, was a participant in the 2016-19 strategic planning process, and is active in the organization’s Mentoring Program.

He is a past president of the New Jersey Communication Association and is a member of the editorial board of the Atlantic Journal of Communication.

Millen’s research on conflict resolution has been published in Mediation Quarterly, Human Communication, and Human Systems.  His work on political discourse appears in the Atlantic Journal of Communication, Studies of Communication in the 2012 Presidential Campaign, and the forthcoming You Shook Me All Campaign Long:  The Role of Music in the 2016 Presidential Election and Beyond.

Millen earned his B.A. in communication from the University of New Hampshire and both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Millen will succeed Jeanne Hey, Ph.D., who became dean in 2011. Under her leadership, the college has seen growth in programs including Animal Behavior, Business Administration, and Marine Sciences. Dean Hey also led college recruitment efforts, completing articulation agreements with high schools and community colleges across Maine and in New Hampshire. Dr. Hey will continue at UNE as a professor of political science, as well as contributing to strategic initiatives out of the Provost’s Office.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.