Professor Benita Wolters-Fredlund will become the new dean for the arts, languages, humanities, and social sciences, Provost Cheryl Brandsen announced in a faculty email Friday.

Wolters-Fredlund is currently co-chair for the newly formed department of visual and performing arts, which houses Calvin Theatre Company, Dance Guild, and all studio art, music, dance, and theater courses and ensembles. She will replace current dean Elizabeth Vander Lei in the position, effective January 1, 2021.

“I’m very pleased to have been chosen to serve in this role and I am excited to work with excellent colleagues in the provost’s council to help lead the academic division,” Wolters-Fredlund told Chimes. “At the same time I know that I’ll miss teaching and miss working closely with faculty, staff, and students in music and in the new Department for Visual and Performing Arts.”

In her fourteen years at Calvin, Wolters-Fredlund has chaired the music department and served on several university committees, the provost’s email said. In these positions she’s gained experience overseeing large numbers of faculty and students, organizing budgets and public events and maintaining and managing equipment.

“In her teaching, her research, her administrative work, and her committee service, Prof. Wolters-Fredlund has demonstrated the ability to communicate clearly and articulately, to collaborate effectively, to think creatively about curricula that takes seriously the needs and interests of students, and to implement strategies that affirm university commitments to diversity and inclusion,” Brandsen’s email stated.

Upon entering her new position, Wolters-Fredlund hopes to encourage faculty from all disciplines to “discover meaningful connections between faith, scholarship, teaching, and service” and “view diversity and inclusion goals as core to our mission,” she told Chimes.

Prior to her employment at Calvin, Wolters-Fredlund earned her undergraduate degree at Redeemer University and her Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Toronto, the email reported.

As Calvin continues to transition towards a new structure, the arts, languages, humanities and social sciences are expected to make up one of two divisions in the planned College of Arts and Sciences. Changes to university structure, including the creation of seven separate schools were first announced by the provost on July 7.

The search committee was chaired by Kristen Alford. Members included Kevin den Dulk, Jennifer Hoag, Jennifer Holberg, Matt Lundberg, and Corey Roberts.