Meet the Provost

Carol Ann Gittens, PhD, Acting Provost

On December 4, 2024, SMC President Roger Thompson announced the appointment of Carol Ann Gittens, PhD, as Acting Provost. Carol Ann will begin her tenure as Acting Provost on January 1, 2025, and will complete her service in June 2027 at the end of the academic year.

Carol Ann has served as the Dean of SMC’s Kalmanovitz School of Education (KSOE) since 2019. There, she has distinguished herself as a teacher, scholar, and leader with an impressive record of accomplishment.

Her achievements in higher education and at Saint Mary’s are numerous and align well with the responsibilities required of our Provost. In her role as Dean of KSOE, she has capably overseen financial planning and budgeting, personnel management, and a broad suite of academic programs. In addition, she:

• Led the School’s strategic planning process and helped ensure its alignment with SMC’s Transformation 2028 strategic plan;
• Helped establish an Endowed Professorship in Early Literacy Intervention and Reading Recovery while conducting a variety of fundraising and public outreach activities;
• Generated private foundation grants, oversaw the School’s scholarship award process, and revitalized a Lasallian Educator Fellowship program;
• Championed, co-hosted, and funded several Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives; 
• Provided organizational leadership for two academic centers.

Carol Ann’s visionary leadership at KSOE has solidified and advanced the School’s academic and institutional excellence through constructive and effective use of resources and a persistent pursuit of external funding opportunities. Her depth of experience will be key in supporting Saint Mary’s faculty, our schools, and our deans, while also helping to shape and drive our academic program offerings. 

More about Carol Ann’s accomplishments as a higher education leader, including links to many of her scholarly papers and published articles, can be found on her academic website.