Christon Arthur, an Andrews alum, is returning to his educational roots as dean of the Andrews University School of Graduate Studies & Research. He assumes the role currently held by interim dean Emilio Garcia-Marenko. Arthur will arrive to campus on July 1, 2010.
 
“The position of dean of the School of Graduate Studies & Research has been upgraded from a half to a full-time position and we look forward to the strength that Christon Arthur will bring to this integral role on campus,” says Bill Richardson, interim provost.
 
“A faculty-student mentorship relationship is the most important attribute of high-quality graduate programs. That was my experience at Andrews,” says Arthur. “I was blessed to have mentors who believed in me, more than I believed in myself—and that’s what we are called to do. They mentored me in scholarly activities and leadership. Undoubtedly, my experiences with my mentors outside of the classroom were more valuable to me than my in-class experiences. My mentors touched my life by ‘paying forward’ and those experiences have made me who I am today. I intend to reciprocate by touching the lives of current students: ‘paying forward’ to the next generation.”   
 
As associate dean of the College of Education at Tennessee State University (TSU) since January 2007, Arthur has provided leadership as the college’s chief academic officer and worked closely with deans, department heads, faculty and others in strategic planning; fiscal planning and budgetary allocations; and creating and maintaining academic rigor. He joined the faculty at TSU in 2001, teaching in the educational administration department. During his tenure, he mentored undergraduate and graduate students in the research process. His mentorship led to his students co-presenting at conferences and co-authoring peer-reviewed publications. His academic contributions did not go unnoticed, leading to Arthur being named “Researcher of the Year” for the Department of Educational Administration in 2002–03 and the university’s “Teacher of the Year” in 2004–05, both at Tennessee State University. Prior to working in higher education, Arthur spent 12 years teaching geography and social studies students at Grenada Seventh-day Adventist Comprehensive School where he also helped students prepare for the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exam.
 
Arthur has led several notable funded research projects, including $11,000 annually for the development and implementation of a peer-reviewed journal in the College of Education at TSU and an annual $35,000 budget to work collaboratively with TSU Extension and Bridges Academy to integrate technology into the curriculum. He has contributed scholarly research articles to numerous publications and delivered dozens of scholarly presentations across the country.
 
He has also been actively involved in several professional organizations and councils including the Tennessee State Board of Education Advisory Council, the K–12 Education Board of the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Foundation, and the Research and Service Committee for the TSU College of Education, to name a few. He holds professional memberships to several organizations such as the American Educational Research Association and the Regents Academic Leadership Institute, among others.
 
Arthur earned a Bachelor of Arts in theology from Caribbean Union College in Trinidad in 1989 and three graduate degrees from Andrews University: a master’s degree in education in 1995; an EdS in curriculum & instruction in 1998 and a PhD in educational administration in 2000.

-Written by Keri Suarez, media relations specialist, Office of Integrated Marketing & Communication