Daniel Everett PhD, has been appointed Dean of Arts & Sciences at Bentley University, effective July 1, 2010.

Everett will join Bentley from Illinois State University, where he has served as Department Chair for Languages, Literatures and Cultures since 2006.  In February of this year, he was also named that institution’s first University Professor.

Previously Everett was professor of Phonetics and Phonology at the University of Manchester in England from 2000 to 2006; and professor of Linguistics and Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh from 1986 to 2000, where he also served on the Advisory Board and later as Dean of the Semester-at-Sea program.

Everett earned his PhD in Linguistics at the State University of Campinas in Brazil, where he taught from 1980 to 1986. 

In addition to his fourteen years of administrative experience, Everett is an extraordinarily accomplished scholar, with much of his research centering on the study of the Pirahã people living in the Amazonian jungle in Brazil.  He has published over 90 articles and six books, the latest of which, “Don’t Sleep There are Snakes:  Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle,” has been published in six languages. Profiles about his research have been published in The New Yorker, New Scientist, GEO magazine, Gehirn & Geist, Scientific American Mind and Science News.

Everett has also worked within and advocated for an interdisciplinary approach to higher education, publishing in psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy. 

“Given Bentley’s emphasis on the holistic integration of business and arts and sciences disciplines, we are thrilled about Dan’s passion in this regard as we continue to create an innovative and distinctively integrated education for our students.  Dan is an extraordinarily well respected scholar and leader who is highly regarded by his colleagues throughout the world.  We are fortunate to have him join our leadership team,” said Gloria Cordes Larson, Bentley University president. “While Bentley has made tremendous progress seamlessly integrating liberal arts and business across courses and projects at the undergraduate, graduate and PhD level, we look forward to working closely with Dan to take this focus to a new level of innovation and creativity.    

Everett commented on his new role, “Bentley has long impressed me from afar as a world leader in business education with deep and broad quality in the Arts and Sciences.  But I realized as soon as I visited campus and met Bentley faculty, staff, students, and administrators, that I did not know the half of it.  Bentley is not only one of the best business schools anywhere; it is among the best private universities in the USA of any type.  It is hard to imagine more forward-looking or accomplished leadership than the team of President Gloria Larson and VP for Academic Affairs Michael Page. I look forward to joining them in order to serve Bentley students and faculty. My principal goals will be to help faculty, staff, and students strengthen and develop the individual departments of the Arts and Sciences and to facilitate ever greater intellectual and educational success for each member and participant in Arts & Sciences at Bentley. It is daunting to join such a team of leading academics. At the same time, it is invigorating to know that soon I will be working with this elite assemblage of scholars and staff for the good of all Bentley students.”

Marilyn B. Durkin, PhD has graciously served in the role of Dean since 2009 during the search process. Dean Durkin will resume her role as Associate Dean working closely with Everett and the faculty of Arts and Sciences.