University of New Mexico Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs James Holloway has selected Naomi Yavneh Klos as the next dean of the Honors College.

Yavneh Klos is the Reverend Emmett M. Bienvenu, SJ, Distinguished Chair in Humanities, and Professor of Languages and Cultures at Loyola University New Orleans. She will begin as dean at UNM on July 1.

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Naomi Yavneh Klos selected as next Honors College dean.

“Dr. Yavneh Klos brings rich knowledge and vast experience with honors programs to the role of dean of UNM’s Honors College,” Holloway said. “She is passionate about using new ideas to build a clear vision for a robust and diverse honors program at UNM in partnership with the faculty of UNM, and we are excited that she will be part of our team.”

From 2011 to 2018, Yavneh Klos directed Loyola’s University Honors Program, where she developed a curriculum focused on social justice and diversity. She was president of the National Collegiate Honors Council, focusing on initiatives of access, equity and inclusive excellence in higher education.

Her leadership in experiential learning and research opportunities led her to a Fulbright Fellowship in the Netherlands, where she taught at Windesheim Honours College and collaborated with the Anne Frank House. In addition, Yavneh Klos was the founding director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and former associate dean of the Honors College at the University of South Florida, one of the top research universities in the nation, and was the founding chair of the Council of Undergraduate Research’s Arts and Humanities Division.

In 2014, she was elected chair of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU)

honors consortium and representative to the AJCU Council of Chairs. She also was elected

to the board of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), which represents over

875 universities nationally and internationally. In 2015, she was elected NCHC vice president and went on to serve as the organization’s 51st president in 2017-18.

She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University and a master of arts and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in comparative literature.

Yavneh Klos said the role of dean attracted her because she believes in the power of a student-centered, public honors education to transform lives and to inspire and prepare students to address the challenges of the 21st century.

“An honors college has the obligation to provide quality, experientially based, student-centered education to highly engaged students from all backgrounds,” she said. “As honors educators, we have an exciting opportunity to guide students both to prepare them for the future — whether that is graduate school, professional programs or distinguished careers — as well as to develop critical- and creative-thinking skills to find solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.”

The opportunity to lead at UNM, a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), was also an attraction to Yavneh Klos.

“Over the last couple of decades in honors, I have held leadership roles at both a large, urban, public R1 research institution and a highly diverse comprehensive Jesuit institution with a commitment to inclusion and social justice,” Yavneh Klos said. “I am looking forward to focusing on a commitment to access and inclusion, and to working with faculty, staff, students and donors to establish the UNM Honors College as a pre-eminent leader in honors education nationally and internationally.”

In her spare time, she enjoys knitting and spending time with her large family. She and her husband, Stanley Klos (who is a historical preservationist of both real estate and documents), have a large collection of historical documents dating back to the Founding Era of the 1600s in the United States that they are interested in sharing with the UNM and New Mexico community. Yavneh Klos, a native of New York, is also looking forward to experiencing New Mexican cuisine.

Leslie Donovan, who has been interim dean of the Honors College since 2023, will continue in that capacity until July 1.