Dr. Kristy Nabhan-Warren
Professor, Figge Chair of Catholic Studies
Associate Vice President of Research, Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR)

During my time at The University of Iowa I have been able to experience several administrative roles and have grown as a person and as a leader. I began my administrative leadership journey as Director of Graduate Studies for Religious Studies one year after I came to Iowa (2013-2016), followed by two mid-level administrative roles, both at the invitation of the then-CLAS Dean: Division Chair for the Division of Interdisciplinary Programs (2020-2022) and then by our current CLAS Dean to step in as Acting Department Chair/DEO for the Department of Rhetoric (2021-2022). It was my leadership success in these roles that led me to apply for the newly created position of Associate Vice President of Research in the Office of Vice President of Research. I am currently in year three of a three-year position as AVP and oversee research initiatives and support in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. I am proud of what I have accomplished during this time and have thoroughly enjoyed the service-oriented culture of OVPR. I have found that while I am not in the classroom in the traditional sense, I am continually teaching and conveying the importance of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) to colleagues across our university. We need university administrators who not only understand HASS but who are immersed in these fields themselves. Being in my current university-wide administrative role is an immense privilege as well as opportunity to promote and amplify the fields I care so deeply about. Moreover, my training as an ethnographer, as someone who translates cultures and lexicons, has come in very handy in my current administrative role as I translate HASS each and every day.

Working with OVPRs talented staff that is mission-focused has been a highlight of my career so far. In my time at The University of Iowa I have grown into an effective leader not only for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, but for all of campus. I have developed and have followed through on several high profile CLAS and university-wide initiatives (including a $275,000 competitive internal grant with my OVPR colleague Leslie Revaux “Writing for the Public Good” and naming new directors with new visions for the two centers I oversee: Obermann and Public Policy Center/CSSI). The threads that bind all of the components of my career together are relationship building, mentorship, and a deep commitment to strengthening our university. The way I have done that and continue to do that is by investing in people. I have actively leveraged those connections to support our faculty, staff, and university at large. It is always my goal that in whatever position I am in that I bring positive attention to the Humanities and to my home discipline of Religious Studies. I remain active as a scholar, public lecturer, and mentor, including several Religious Studies graduate students, and see myself as a lifelong ambassador for Religious Studies and my subfield Catholic Studies. 

I have long believed that as scholars we must seek for new ways to share our research with the broader public, and I encourage my colleagues in Religious Studies and all of our departments to look into sharing their research expertise with rigorous public-facing venues such as The Conversation https://theconversation.com/us 

Leslie Revaux and my “Writing for the Public Good” is all about supporting and promoting faculty and graduate students’ research and helping to connect their research with public-facing news outlets. Come talk to Leslie and me about publishing your work in The Conversation. It is a wonderful way to get your academic work and research out there! And please come talk to me about applying for outside research grants as well as internal funding with the Arts and Humanities Initiative (AHI) which is funded by OVPR and which I oversee with my Research Development Office (RDO) colleague Britt Ryan.