Board of Directors
Ruth V. Watkins, Ph.D.
Ruth V. Watkins, Ph.D., currently serves as the Harry E. Preble Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois. The State of Illinois portion of her budget is $125 million. The College has 12,000 undergraduate and 2,600 graduate students.
Much of the University of Illinois’ basic research in biological and biomedical science is housed in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the School of Chemical Sciences in the College.
Dr. Watkins joined the faculty of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois in 1993. She served as Associate Dean for Academic and Research Affairs in the College of Applied Health Sciences from 2000-2003 and in the Office of the Provost as Associate Provost from 2003-2006 and Vice Provost from 2006-2008. As Associate Provost, Dr. Watkins provided guidance to the campus on a range of issues related to undergraduate education. As Vice Provost (2006-2008), she served as Chief of Staff and provided leadership in the areas of academic affairs, faculty affairs, undergraduate education and strategic planning and implementation.
Dr. Watkins serves as the Principal Investigator of a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education, designed to support the campus’s efforts to expand opportunities for community college students at Illinois. Her scholarship focuses on communication development and disabilities, including prevention of disability in populations who are at risk. Her research and training programs have been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education, and she has received recognition for teaching excellence at departmental and college levels.
Dr. Watkins earned her bachelor’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Northern Iowa, her master’s in child language/speech-language pathology from the University of Kansas and her doctorate in child language from the University of Kansas.