Dean of Arts and Sciences

Rick became a member of the Bentley faculty in 2008, joining the Natural & Applied Sciences (NAS) Department after a decade as a faculty member in the Geology Department and Chair of Environmental Science & Policy at the University of South Florida. He served as NAS Department chair for seven years, and he became Dean of Arts & Sciences in 2018. His undergraduate and graduate degrees are in geology, and his teaching and research interests have focused on Earth's recent climate history and human and environmental response to past climate changes in different parts of the world. Increasingly his academic interests center on Earth and environmental science education, transdisciplinary course and curriculum development, and interdisciplinary faculty engagement to foster improved science literacy for non-STEM majors.

Jeff has been an active part of the Bentley faculty since 2004. He was the interim Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences in fall 2019 and previously was Director of the Liberal Studies Major (LSM) and Associate Director of the Honors Program. More recently, he served as a member at-large on Faculty Senate, of the Falcon Discovery Seminar design team, of the Resource Stewardship, Revenue Growth and Diversification strategic positioning committee, and of the Racial Justice Task Force. Jeff earned his Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia and B.A. in Political Science from UNC-Chapel Hill. His primary research and teaching interests are in the U.S. Congress, elections, race and American politics, and politics in popular culture. He also sits on the senior editorial boards of the Journal of Information Technology & Politics and the Journal of Political Marketing.