University Names Innovative Higher Education Executive New Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

The University of New Haven announced today that Danielle Wozniak, MSW, Ph.D., an accomplished higher education leader with 25 years of experience, has been named provost and vice president of academic affairs, effective January 1, 2022. As chief academic officer, she will oversee all teaching, learning, and research initiatives, curricular innovation, and faculty assessment and development.

Dr. Wozniak joins the University of New Haven from Yeshiva University, where she was vice provost and Dorothy and David I. Schachne Dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work.

"A strategic academic leader, distance learning expert, and a cross-disciplinary scholar, Dr. Wozniak has a distinguished record of creating new student-centered online and on-ground programs, investing in faculty excellence, and fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation," said President Steven H. Kaplan, Ph.D. "She has also played an important leadership role in supporting enrollment growth and brand awareness as well as fundraising and major gift campaigns. I am confident she is the ideal person to advance the creative work taking place on campus and to help position us for continued growth."

"I am thrilled to be joining the accomplished faculty and staff at the University of New Haven. It is an exciting time in higher education, and I can't think of a university better poised for mission-consistent growth." Danielle Wozniak, MSW, Ph.D.

At Yeshiva, Dr. Wozniak led the revitalization of a prominent graduate school through a period of remarkable growth premised on curriculum renewal, increased partnerships and branding, online and hybrid program development, new program expansion, and increased faculty research activity. She elevated the school's Ph.D. in social welfare to international prominence, supervised the development of a new clinical doctorate, created and expanded new partnership opportunities between Yeshiva and other U.S. and Israeli-based universities, and developed new certificate programs as well as supported continuing education programs for mental health professionals that sustained Yeshiva's brand and created a new revenue stream.

She also participated in a university-wide strategic planning process and supported organizational development initiatives by acting as an internal consultant for academic and non-academic departments at Yeshiva to assess organizational structure, staffing needs, and student satisfaction rates.

"I am thrilled to be joining the accomplished faculty and staff at the University of New Haven," said Dr. Wozniak. "It is an exciting time in higher education, and I can't think of a university better poised for mission-consistent growth. Under the inspired leadership of President Kaplan, I look forward to co-creating the future of higher education in a post-pandemic world with outstanding colleagues and remarkable students."

Prior to her work at Yeshiva, she was dean of arts and sciences at the College of New Rochelle, where she launched new majors in criminal justice and women's studies and developed summer STEM programming for underserved and minority students. She also was director of the School of Social Work at the University of New England and director of the bachelor of social work program and co-director of the sexual assault prevention program at the University of Montana.

An accomplished writer, she has authored and co-authored books published by New York University Press, Rutgers University Press, and Adams Media, as well as a wide variety of refereed journal articles and essays. She has contributed to numerous scholarly publications, including Journal of Progressive Human Services; Journal of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry; Current Anthropology; and Women's History Review. She has presented on such topics as domestic violence intervention, teaching social policy, distance education, cultural diversity, ethnographic field research, and constructs of kinship and identity among U.S. foster mothers.

She has held faculty positions at the University of Montana and Western Michigan University, and has taught classes on domestic violence and post-traumatic growth, cultural diversity, advanced social policy, gender and sexuality, human behavior, and kinship and fostering relations. She has also taught at Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Connecticut, and Connecticut College. Dr. Wozniak co-founded an online mental health experience company, Powerful Me!, which combines mental health interventions and techniques with cutting-edge game technology to assist women in making difficult life changes or healing from painful life experiences, including recovery from domestic violence.

She earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Connecticut, a sixth-year certificate in education administration and supervision from the University of Hartford, a master's in social work from Fordham University, and a bachelor's degree in English literature from Miami University of Ohio. She also has extensive direct practice experience in the K-12 setting as a school social worker and administrator.