Holy Cross Announces New Dean for Faculty Development

WORCESTER, Mass. – Amy Wolfson, current professor and chair of the psychology department at the College of the Holy Cross, has been promoted to associate dean for faculty development.  She will assume her new position on June 14, 2010.

She succeeds Rev. James J. Miracky, S.J., who had been with the College since 1996 and will become the dean of Loyola College, the school of arts and sciences at Loyola University Maryland.

Wolfson earned her B.A from Harvard University and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Washington University.  She joined the Holy Cross faculty in 1992, received tenure in 1999, and was promoted to professor in 2006.  For the past two years she has served as chair of the psychology department.

Wolfson, a widely-sought after expert on sleep patterns, has done extensive research on the subject and her recent research has been supported by a seven-figure grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.  The initial phase of the project, which involved collecting data on the sleep patterns and daytime functioning of middle school-age teens in central Massachusetts, is soon to be complete and Wolfson and her colleagues will publish these results.  Her studies have already been presented at conferences and invited lectures.

Wolfson has served the College in a wide range of capacities. She has been elected to key positions on the Committee on Tenure and Promotion, the Student Life Council, the Community Standards Board, and the Academic Affairs Council. She directed the Women’s and Gender Studies Concentration, co-facilitated the ad-hoc committee that developed plans for the Second-Year Orientation (2YO), and belonged to the search committees that selected both the inaugural director of community-based learning at Holy Cross and the current Dean of the College.