I am pleased to announce that Dr. Grant Hayes will become the new dean of the College of Community Innovation and Education (CCIE) on August 1.
He joins UCF from East Carolina University (ECU) in Greenville, North Carolina, where since 2019 he has served as interim provost and senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. Before that, he led ECU’s College of Education for four years as dean. His considerable leadership experience and commitment to inclusive excellence, student success, and interdisciplinary and community collaboration will serve the college well as UCF advances among leading research universities dedicated to the success of students from all backgrounds.
Dr. Hayes also brings valuable perspectives about UCF, where earlier in his career he held leadership roles including interim dean and executive associate dean in the former College of Education and Human Performance.
As dean of CCIE, he will be responsible for advancing student success, faculty excellence, research and graduate programs, philanthropy and the many other activities that make a strong college. Aside from its main campus presence, CCIE helps anchor the UCF Downtown campus. Dr. Hayes will play a key role in bolstering community partnerships with downtown-area stakeholders.
Dr. Hayes is a professor of counselor education who has published and researched extensively on areas that include counseling children and adolescents, technological applications in counselor education, and character education and moral development in schools and youth settings. He holds doctoral, master’s, and educational specialist degrees from the University of South Carolina. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Limestone College in South Carolina.
His professional honors include being a fellow of the American Counseling Association and a past board member of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. He is a past president of the Counseling Association for Humanistic Education and Development and recipient of the association’s Humanistic Processes Award.
I thank the search committee and its co-chairs, deans Sheila Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres and Mary Lou Sole, for their success in identifying strong candidates for this critical position. And I also express my deepest gratitude to Interim Dean Glenn Lambie for his thoughtful leadership and dedication.
