Dean Badia Ahad

As dean of Oxford College at Emory University, Badia Ahad is responsible for crafting the overall vision and establishing the strategic priorities of the college. Reporting to the Emory provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Ahad serves as Oxford’s chief academic, administrative, and fiscal officer. In addition, the dean maintains a wide portfolio of responsibilities, including academic affairs, campus life and housing, finance and operations, communications, enrollment services, technology, advancement, and human resources. A scholar of literary and cultural studies, Ahad joined Oxford College in 2023 after serving 18 years on the faculty at Loyola University Chicago. At Loyola, she held numerous administrative posts including serving as the director of the university core curriculum and vice provost for faculty affairs. In the classroom, Ahad has been honored with numerous awards for teaching and scholarship excellence.

She has published widely on the intersection of African American literary and cultural studies and positive psychology, with a focus on the social, emotional, and psychological conditions that foster human flourishing. Ahad also served as principal investigator on a $1 million-dollar ADVANCE grant to support the retention and equity of underrepresented faculty in STEM fields, funded by the National Science Foundation. She is recognized as a national expert on faculty development and mentoring, having served for nearly a decade as the director of academic training for the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD).

Ahad graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received her MA and PhD in English Literature from the University of Notre Dame.