Oklahoma State University has appointed Dr. Laura Stevens as dean of the Honors College following approval by the OSU/A&M Board of Regents at its June 12 meeting. Provost Jeanette Mendez made the announcement today.

"Dr. Stevens brings exactly the combination of scholarly distinction, administrative vision and genuine commitment to undergraduate education that our Honors College deserves in its next leader," Mendez said. "Her track record of expanding access, building community and elevating student research makes her an exceptional fit for OSU, and we are thrilled to welcome her to the Cowboy family."

Stevens comes to OSU from Auburn University, where she has served as director of the Honors College since 2024. She is a scholar of early American and British Atlantic literature whose research focuses on colonial encounter, religious texts and emotion studies. She holds a doctorate and master's degree in English from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Villanova University, where she graduated magna cum laude.

Before joining Auburn, Stevens spent 25 years at the University of Tulsa, where she rose to the rank of endowed professor and served in a range of leadership roles, including chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing, director of the Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge, editor of Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature and president of the Society of Early Americanists.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Cowboy family, returning to a state I called home for many years,” Stevens said. “I look forward to working with the Honors College’s faculty and staff, along with colleagues across campus, to build upon the transformative opportunities the college already offers students and determine how the college can best contribute to advancing OSU’s land-grant mission.”

At Auburn, Stevens led a staff of 14 and oversaw curriculum and programming for approximately 2,300 honors students. Under her direction, the college doubled its application pool, rebuilt its national prestigious scholarships program, launched new undergraduate research initiatives and raised more than $600,000 in new endowment support. She also authored a 10-year strategic plan for the college and oversaw the integration of Auburn's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa into honors operations.

Her scholarly work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Huntington Library, the American Philosophical Society and other leading research institutions. In 2019, she served as a Fulbright Professor at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany. She is the author of "The Poor Indians: British Missionaries, Native Americans, and Colonial Sensibility" (University of Pennsylvania Press) and has additional publications forthcoming from the University of Pennsylvania Press and Cambridge University Press.

The Honors College at Oklahoma State University serves students from more than 175 academic disciplines, offering the benefits of a small liberal arts environment within the resources of a major land-grant research university. OSU honors students have earned national recognition as Fulbright, Truman, Goldwater and Gates Cambridge Scholars.

Stevens succeeds Dr. Keith Garbutt, who retired from the position after serving as the college’s inaugural dean since 2014.

Stevens begins her tenure as dean Aug. 14.