Sippial named dean of University of Alabama’s Honors College

Following 16 years as a faculty member and director of the Honors College, Tiffany Sippial, professor of history, will leave Auburn at the end of the semester to assume the role of dean of the Honors College at the University of Alabama beginning July 5, 2023. 

Since 2019, Sippial has led Auburn’s Honors College and is credited with increasing its enrollment by more than 30 percent while also strengthening its National Prestigious Scholarships Program and expanding course and research offerings to students. 

“While we are certainly saddened to see her leave Auburn, the impact Dr. Sippial has had on our campus both as a faculty member and through the Honors College is immeasurable,” said Associate Provost Norman Godwin. “Without question, I am confident her leadership of the Honors College will impact future cohorts of Auburn students as we carry her momentum forward. We wish her tremendous success in her next endeavor.”

Delivering a strategic vision focused on strengthening the honors college experience for students, Sippial has been vital in expanding the program’s service and engagement initiatives, resulting in increased retention, improved advising and expanded undergraduate research and internship opportunities. Following a strategic restructuring of the college, Sippial implemented a model that emphasized comprehensive academic coaching and peer mentoring while also launching a parent council and establishing new connections to support greater engagement among diverse students.

Through her strategic collaborations, Sippial worked alongside campus units to expand student programs and strengthen recruitment efforts, resulting in record numbers of Honors College students across all units. In addition, Sippial worked with departments to establish new faculty-student research collaborations to advance the university’s strategic goal of improving high-impact practices. With an emphasis on development activities and strengthening its philanthropic support, the college surpassed its fundraising goals by more than 50 percent under Sippial’s leadership.

A noted leader in advancing inclusion and diversity efforts, Sippial chaired a nine-member, cross-disciplinary committee that submitted Auburn’s first application to finance a Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Scholars) and collaborated with the Honors College, the Office of Inclusion and Diversity and the Office of Undergraduate Research to secure funding to establish a new Matthews Scholars program. As a result, Sippial was awarded Auburn’s Inclusive Excellence Award earlier this year. 

As a professor in the Department of History in the College of Liberal Arts, Sippial came to Auburn in 2007 as an assistant professor. A prominent scholar in Latin American studies, Sippial’s research focuses on women’s experiences as part of the operation of power in Latin American society. Her research has been supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant, a CCWH Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Award, an American Historical Association Albert J. Beveridge Grant for Research in the History of the Western Hemisphere, a Latin American and Iberian Institute Ph.D. Fellowship and a Dean’s Dissertation Scholarship from the University of New Mexico. An author of several books, Sippial’s most recent, Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Creation of Cuba’s New Woman, was published in 2020.

“It has been an honor to lead Auburn’s Honors College and I am deeply proud of what we have accomplished together,” Sippial said. “The continued investment in our extraordinary honors students by the faculty and staff of Auburn drives our ability to teach, grow, support, and innovate. I am confident the work my team and I have started at Auburn will carry forward as the college continues to support student excellence.”

An Interim Director will be appointed to lead the Honors College while a search for a new Director commences in the summer months.