Wells College promoted a longtime professor to vice president of academic affairs and school dean this week.

Sociology specialist Leslie Miller-Bernal joined the college faculty in 1975 and has served as interim dean since last August.

“I am confident Dean Miller-Bernal's collaborative and decisive academic leadership, commitment to excellence for Wells, and broad-based support will serve her well in this new post,” Wells College President Lisa Marsh Ryerson said in a press release.

Miller-Bernal's resume includes development of the pilot Information and Learning Center in Long Library and drafting of a 10-year academic plan. She has served as associate dean of the college, chair of the social services division and chair of the sociology department.

Miller-Bernal earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from SUNY Stony Brook and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. She has authored several books examining single sex and coeducational learning.

“Becoming dean of the college at this point in Wells' history is a wonderful opportunity and an awesome responsibility, in the true sense of the word ‘awesome',” Miller-Bernal said in a press release. “With the growth in enrollment, a new science building, an institutionalized commitment to diversity, and development of our study abroad programs, including some in the non-Western world, Wells faces exciting challenges.”

The appointment is effective immediately.