Dear students,
I am very pleased to announce that a new Associate Dean of Undergraduate Advising has joined Tufts and will be working with other deans, staff, and faculty to support our undergraduate students in Arts and Sciences. Tanesha Leathers will serve as Advising Dean to Liberal Arts undergraduates with last names A-E. She will begin advising this student cohort next week, with the official shift in alphabetical dean assignments effective on September 24.
Dean Leathers comes to Tufts from Wesleyan, where she most recently served as Dean for the outgoing Class of 2021 and the incoming Class of 2025. In addition to providing general advising to her cohorts, she served as a support for students in academic jeopardy and students dealing with personal crises. Dean Leathers participated as a member of Wesleyan’s Watson Fellowship Selection Committee and the Mellon Mays Selection Committee. A native of Queens, New York, she ventured up to Massachusetts as a first-generation student to earn her B.A. in Anthropology at Williams College, which included a semester abroad at the University of York in the U.K. She also participated in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at Williams and served as a CrISP Scholar at the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland, College Park where she earned her doctorate in American Studies. Her doctoral work focused on parenting as activism in Baltimore and the revolutionary potential of Black love. During her career in higher education, Dean Leathers has worked in student affairs and academic affairs as a resident director at the University of Maryland, a community life coordinator at her undergraduate alma mater, an assistant program manager at Johns Hopkins's Center for Talented Youth, an academic advisor at the University of Maryland, and most recently as a class dean at Wesleyan University. She enjoys helping students discover paths that will help them reach their full potential, and she looks forward to advising students within the School of Arts & Sciences.
Effective on September 24, the new alphabetical assignments will be as follows so that students know which advising dean to contact for academic concerns:
Beyond their advising deans and their academic advisors, undergraduate students also have access to professional staff who serve as advisors for specific degree programs. Tobias Bennett serves as the Academic Resource Advisor for BFA students. Tara Zantow, Senior Academic Advisor, has recently moved to School of Engineering to support Engineering students and those considering an internal transfer to the School of Engineering. The School of Arts and Sciences is now in the process of hiring two Senior Academic Advisors who will focus their work on first-years and sophomores in Liberal Arts, especially those still deciding upon a major.
Students may contact members of the advising team through our website.
Best wishes for a wonderful fall semester.
Carmen Lowe
Dean of Academic Advising and Undergraduate Studies
School of Arts and Sciences
Tufts University
Pronouns: she, her, hers
