Marnel Niles Goins is the new dean for the School of Communication, Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer Vicky Wilkins announced in an email Wednesday morning.
Niles Goins is currently the dean of the College of Sciences and Humanities and a professor of communication at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. She will begin her role at American University on July 1.
“I am honored and humbled to join American University and work with the wonderful faculty and staff in the School of Communication,” said Dr. Niles Goins in a press release. “I look forward to the great things we’ll accomplish together.”
Former SOC Dean Sam Fulwood III served from 2021-2023. Interim Dean Leena Jayaswal took over in May 2023.
Niles Goins started at Marymount in 2019 as Associate Dean of the former School of Design, Arts and Humanities and a professor of Communication. She served as Interim Dean in 2020 through an academic structure reorganization, which led to the establishment of the current College of Arts of Sciences. In 2021, she became the permanent dean.
Under Marnel’s leadership, the college established new Bachelor of Science programs in Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Neuroscience, a concentration in Sports Communication and a five-year BA/MA Psychology to Forensic and Legal Psychology program. Niles Goins was previously a full professor in the Department of Communication at California State University, Fresno.
“Dr. Marnel Niles Goins is an experienced leader, educator and communicator who will be an incredible partner for AU’s School of Communication’s faculty, staff, and students,” University President Sylvia Burwell said in the press release.
Niles Goins is the current president of the National Communication Association, former president of the Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication and former president of the Western States Communication Association.
Niles Goins specializes in racial and gender dynamics in organizational settings, including higher education, and discusses intersections of varying oppressions. Niles Goins earned her PhD in Organizational and Small Group Communication from Howard University and BA in Communication from Oakwood College — now Oakwood University — in Alabama.
Her scholarship in Organizational and Small Group Communication “engages the Black and Black female communities and aids in increasing the understanding of them as individuals, groups, and organizations,” according to the email.
“I am committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and access and recognize that they should be a part of every organization’s efforts and embedded in the very foundation of its systems,” Niles Goins said on her website.
Niles has published scholarly research such as, “The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Communication” and “Still Searching for Our Mothers’ Gardens: Experiences of New, Tenure-Track Women of Color at ‘Majority’ Institutions.”
“I am deeply grateful to Leena Jayaswal for her many extraordinary contributions as interim dean since May 2023,” Wilkins wrote in the email. “I have greatly appreciated the active engagement of SOC faculty, staff and students throughout the search process. Special thanks to the members of the search committee, led by chair Filippo Trevisan, for their commitment and hard work in recruiting this outstanding new dean for SOC.”
This article was edited by Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks and Sarah Clayton.
