Dean's Welcome

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It is my pleasure to welcome you to the John V. Roach Honors College and the start of the 2023-24 academic year.  In our college, we bring together the most highly motivated students to reimagine learning and exploration. We work to broaden students’ minds beyond disciplines and majors and to encourage critical connections to ideas, inquiry, people, and communities.

A major highlight of the past year was opening our newly renovated building, Sadler Hall. It thrills me to see students studying and collaborating in the Judy and Paul Andrews Honors Lounge, watch professors teach in our innovative Honors Discovery Space, and hear academic advisors support students on their educational and career paths as they collaborate in our administrative space. Honors spaces in Sadler Hall are designed to help us prioritize students, their learning, and their connections to faculty and staff for years to come.  

As I look ahead, I could not be more “fired up” about what we are building.  

• Three new faculty members will join our team of renowned teacher-scholars who cultivate curiosity. We are excited to see Dr. Sylviane Greensword, Dr. Kristin Ferebee, and Dr. Sarah Vartabedian work as teachers who inspire wonder, mentors who willingly meet with Honors students, and professors who model what it means to research responsibly.
• Two people will take on key and reimagined administrative roles in the Honors College. Dr. Stacy Landreth-Grau comes from the Neeley School of Business to become our new Associate Dean. Marie Martinez will become our new Assistant Dean of Student Engagement and Success, building on her previous role as Director of Advising. Both will help build the College’s organizational culture and allow us to serve constituents more effectively.
• Dr. Tracy Rundstrom will join the Honors College as the Director of Nationally Competitive Scholarships. This new and much-needed role will allow Dr. Rundstrom to build a culture that supports students interested in applying for the prestigious post-graduate awards, scholarship competitions like the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Truman and Goldwater. This new program will be housed in the John V. Roach Honors College but will serve the entire university.
• Over 270 students are coming to TCU this fall as new members of the John V. Roach Honors College. They are a group of fantastic students who show potential for living a life of intellectual inquiry, participating in critical thinking and engaging others—especially those who think differently from them—in earnest and respectful discussion with open minds. We are excited to see what they bring to and how they shape the Honors community.