UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean
- Distinguished Educator and Researcher
Adrienne Provost is a distinguished educator and researcher with a Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Florida. She serves as Assistant Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. Nationally recognized for her innovative programming, Dr. Provost has received numerous awards, including the 2024 Terry O'Banion Legacy Award and the 2020 Santa Fe College Innovation Award. Her passion for expanding higher education pathways has significantly increased educational opportunities for low-income, first-generation students. Dr. Provost's academic interests include the history of higher education, community colleges, humanistic education, general education, and higher education policy and legislation.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Development, Corporate and Foundation Relations
Sean Adams (Ph.D., Wisconsin) is the Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of History and interim associate dean. He teaches classes on the global history of energy, American capitalism, and 19th century U.S. History. Adams is the founder and director of Inquire Capitalism program (https://inquire-capitalism.clas.ufl.edu/ (opens in new tab)), which supports research on global capitalism and has several public-facing digital research projects on business history.
A specialist in the Industrial Revolution, Adams is the author of Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America (Johns Hopkins, 2004), Home Fires: How Americans Kept Warm in the Nineteenth Century (Johns Hopkins, 2014), and a three-volume anthology entitled The American Coal Industry, 1789-1902 (Routledge, 2013). He is the editor of The Early American Republic: A Documentary Reader (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008) and The Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), as well as numerous articles, reviews, and book chapters. He is currently writing two books, one on the economic and historical value of land in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, as well as a survey of America's Industrial Revolution.
David Foster (PH.D., State University of New York, Albany, 1989) is professor of geological sciences. He was a member of the research faculty at Latrobe University in Australia before joining UF as an assistant professor in 1998. Foster was promoted to associate professor in 2000 and to professor in 2005. He served as associate chair for the Department of Geological Sciences from 2007-2013, and chair from 2013-2022.
Foster has taught at all curriculum levels, from introductory undergraduate courses to advanced graduate classes, and led the development of the first online Geology BA degree in the nation. His research focus is on continental tectonics and geochronology and, more recently, on applications of enhanced weathering of volcanic rocks to agriculture. He has served on numerous college and university committees, including the CLAS Finance Committee and the Faculty Senate.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Communications
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Donor Relations
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean
- Associate Dean / Director, Academic Advising Center
Gillian Lord (Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University) is Professor of Hispanic Linguistics. She joined the University of Florida faculty in 2001, where she worked for many years as Spanish Language Program Director, coordinating and overseeing the Beginning and Intermediate Spanish courses. She later chaired the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies from 2010 through 2021. Her research focuses on the teaching and learning of Spanish as a second/foreign language, with an emphasis on the sound system (e.g., pronunciation) of second language speakers of Spanish, and the use of technology in language education. Dr. Lord has held leadership roles in a number of professional organizations, such as the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators, the Modern Language Association's Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL), and as President of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO).
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Development
Job Titles:
- Director of the UF Honors Program
- Interim Associate Dean
Kevin Knudson joined UF as Director of the UF Honors Program and Professor of Mathematics in 2009. He then served as chair of the Department of Mathematics from 2018 to 2024. During that time the department hired nearly 20 new faculty, grew the research enterprise, significantly expanded its outreach activities, and moved its lower-division courses to open-source materials, which have saved UF students more than $4M to date.
Knudson was an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, where he graduated from the Honors Program, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and was a member of the Corps of Cadets. He earned his PhD in mathematics at Duke University in 1996 under the direction of Richard Hain and received a National Science Foundation Mathematical Sciences Research Postdoctoral Fellowship which he used at Northwestern University. He subsequently held tenure-track positions at Wayne State University in Detroit and Mississippi State University before coming to UF. Knudson was named a CLAS Teacher of the Year in 2016 and was inducted into the UF Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars the same year. He has written more than 30 research articles and published three books in algebraic topology and related areas.
When he is not working on administrative or math problems, Knudson enjoys cooking, kayaking, hiking, playing the guitar, and spending time with his family. He is married to book artist Ellen Knudson and they have one son, Gustav, a composer living in Vancouver, BC.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Development
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of External Engagement
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Advancement
Margaret Fields joined the CLAS dean's office in 2004. She earned her specialist in education degree in 2000 and a PhD in higher education administration in 2002 from College of Education. (opens in new tab)
Previously, Fields served as the coordinator of administrative services for UF's zoology department (opens in new tab) and served as vice president of operations for a research institute after her stint with AT&T Information Systems Headquarters in New Jersey.
She is a former chair of the Board of Directors for the Leadership Gainesville Alumni Association, (opens in new tab) North Central Florida American Red Cross and the chair-elect of the Board of Directors for Association of Psychological Type International, (opens in new tab) which is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The group is an international professional membership organization which promotes the practical application and ethical use of psychological type through continuous learning and research.
Fields' research has focused on academic integrity and influencing factors such as gender, self-esteem and psychological type. Her most recent research concerns the relationship of standardized test scores and young students' preferences for taking in information. She has recently published several articles and has authored a chapter in a book "Leadership & Type" (opens in new tab) and co-authored a book "Shape Up Your Program." (opens in new tab)
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Strategic Engagement
Job Titles:
- Assistant and Associate Deans
- Interim Associate Dean
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Strategic Engagement
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Development
Job Titles:
- Creative Production Manager