By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
Dr. James Brockmole of Notre Dame will join Baylor as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and he’s bringing his background in psychology, his faith and his love for national parks to his role.
Provost Nancy Brickhouse announced on Jan. 14 that Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences selected Brockmole, Notre Dame professor and psychology chair, as its next dean.
The College of Arts and Sciences encompasses the majority of Baylor’s 125-plus majors and nearly half of the university’s undergraduate population, according to the Office of Institutional Research. For the last 20 years, it has been led by geosciences professor Dr. Lee Nordt.
As the transition begins after two decades of consistent leadership, Brockmole himself is leaving a post he’s held for a long period. His academic career has largely been at Notre Dame, where he attended as an undergraduate and has been on faculty for the last 17 years.
“My decision to come to Notre Dame 17 years ago was guided by its mission-driven values that are centered on learning, faith and service,” Brockmole said. “I see those same values in the heart of the Baylor community as well.”
Earning an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Michigan State University, Brockmole primarily researches how the visual world guides human behavior. Joining Notre Dame’s psychology faculty in 2009 as an associate professor, Brockmole worked his way up to department chair in 2023. And with extensive time in South Bend and the Catholic Church, his background is one that — similar to Baylor’s mission — has blended faith and academics.
“I have spent my life in the Roman Catholic Church and nearly half of it as either a student or faculty member at Notre Dame,” Brockmole said. “The Catholic intellectual tradition is one in which faith and reason are inextricably linked and there is a unity among disciplines as they contribute to an overall understanding of the world. Hence, I firmly believe that a faith-based mission enables a university to be truly universal.”
While Brockmole said many specific initiatives will be born out of meetings with faculty, staff and students after his arrival, some of his goals include attracting and retaining top faculty and improving graduation rates and time-to-degree.
“I want the college to be a leader in this effort through robust curricular and advising strategies that optimize timely completion without sacrificing the quality of students’ learning,” Brockmole said.
Brockmole also mentioned his desire to integrate “technological competence” with “humanistic skills,” along with goals to preserve and adapt the core curriculum and maximize study abroad and service learning opportunities.
Nordt will return to the geosciences department upon Brockmole’s July 1 start.
“I look forward to the arrival of Dr. James Brockmole as my successor as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences here at Baylor University,” Nordt said via email. “Dr. Brockmole will join Baylor with considerable prior administrative experience from the University of Notre Dame that crosses both the humanities and the sciences.”
As the transition begins, Brockmole said he is grateful to continue the momentum built under Nordt’s leadership, during which the university achieved R1 research status in late 2021 and significantly increased enrollment.
“The college has indeed been in terrific hands with Dean Nordt, and the benefits of his great work here will reverberate for a long time,” Brockmole said. “So I see his long tenure is a tremendous strategic advantage that I am fortunate to have as an incoming dean.”
Brockmole’s hiring adds to a list of new deans in the last few years, including Jeremy Counseller of Baylor Law in 2024 and Dr. David Szymanski of the Hankamer School of Business and Dr. Luci Ramos Hope of the Diana Garland School of Social Work in 2025.
After completing the spring semester at Notre Dame, Brockmole will move to Waco with his wife, while his adult children will continue to live in Indiana. When he’s not on campus, Brockmole enjoys woodworking and wildlife photography. And as he works through his goal of visiting all 63 national parks with his wife, he’s excited to see Big Bend and the Guadalupe Mountains once he arrives in Texas.
