Vice provost Farouk Dey named president of Palo Alto University

Farouk Dey, who as the inaugural vice provost for integrative learning and life design at Johns Hopkins spearheaded a bold and sweeping reimagination of the university's approach to preparing students for fulfilling careers, has been selected as the next president of Palo Alto University in California, the school announced today.

Located in Silicon Valley, PAU specializes in behavioral health equity, offering bachelor's, master's, and PhD programs, as well as hands-on clinical work, to train professionals at the forefront of psychology and counseling. Dey will begin his new role in July.

Nationally recognized in the field of career and experiential education, Dey joined Johns Hopkins in 2018 to lead JHU's efforts to ensure that both undergraduate and graduate students have access to experiential learning programs and pathways to meaningful work after graduation. He built a strong team that forged partnerships with divisional career services offices, Student Affairs, and other stakeholders committed to student success.

"His fresh approach to bridging academic and personal life aspirations has been central to Johns Hopkins' efforts to modernize student services and address the evolving needs of our students," JHU President Ron Daniels and Provost Ray Jayawardhana wrote in a message to university leadership today.

"While we will miss Farouk's daily leadership and creativity at Hopkins, we are excited for him as he takes on this new leadership role and enjoys his homecoming to the Bay Area. We are confident that his boundless energy, good humor, deep care for students, and remarkable capacity for creative risk taking will be a tremendous boon to the community at PAU and are grateful that we will continue to benefit from all he has helped build here at Hopkins."

Dey founded JHU's Office of Integrative Learning and Life Design, which encompasses 15 units that bridge academic and curricular programming with personal exploration and mentoring for students, postdoctoral fellows, and alumni across the university's nine schools. Central to his work is the philosophy of life design, which encourages learners to explore their curiosity and design rewarding careers based on what inspires them, empowering them to make what Dey calls "audacious moves" toward their goals.

Among his signature achievements was the launch of the Imagine Center, the university's Homewood campus-based hub for Integrative Learning and Life Design. His inspiring vision for student success has yielded tangible results—record student engagement, satisfaction, and employment placements, as well as increased funding for experiential learning experiences in research, study abroad, internships, and entrepreneurship. Most recently, this cultural transformation contributed to the creation of the Staff Life Design Office, extending the life design philosophy to staff career development, in support of one of the goals of JHU's Ten for One strategic framework: becoming a national employer of choice with multiple pathways for staff growth and advancement.

Before coming to Baltimore, Dey served as associate vice provost for student affairs and dean of career and experiential education at Stanford University.

"We hope you will join us in thanking [Dey] for his exceptional service to Johns Hopkins and congratulating him on his own 'audacious move' to PAU," they wrote.