Bernard Cook (CAS ’90), associate director of John Carroll Programs, will serve as an assistant dean of the College beginning this January.
Cook will now work with College juniors, especially those considering their study abroad options. He also teaches as an adjunct assistant professor in the American Studies department.
Cook said he was excited to take on the new position.
“I wanted to become an academic dean in order to expand my work teaching and advising students, collaborating with colleagues and contributing to the development of dynamic and innovative new programs from within Georgetown’s oldest and largest undergraduate school,” he said.
College Dean Jane McAuliffe said she was also excited about Cook’s decision to join the deans’ office.
“Bernie brings to the College deans’ office a strong record of student advising, teaching and research. I am really delighted that he will be joining us soon,” she said.
The assistant dean position opened up after some “creative reassignments and reconfigurements” were decided on this fall, according to Associate College Dean Anne Sullivan.
McAuliffe said that the vacancy was created after Marta Perez Drake, an academic counselor, left her position unexpectedly in October. She said another factor was Senior Associate Dean Richard Sullivan’s planned departure from Georgetown at the end of this semester after 34 years of working for the university.
“Anticipating Dean Richard Sullivan’s departure, we then shaped a position of a dean largely devoted to the junior class, and it is this position for which we searched in late October [and] early November,” Dean Anne Sullivan said. “We are delighted with the outcome of our search.”
As an instructor for the John Carroll Programs, Cook taught first-term Carroll Fellows in courses such as the Carroll Leadership Seminar and Introduction to Research, both of which he created. Cook also teaches American Civilization III.
John Glavin, director of the John Carroll programs, expressed his confidence in Cook.
“While I regret that I will no longer enjoy the opportunity of working closely with Dr. Cook, whom I have known since he was an undergraduate at Georgetown, I am pleased that he will be moving on to new challenges in a stimulating environment,” he said.
Cook will bring to his new position the strengths of a “strong commitment to treating each student as a unique individual and his unmatched expertise in outcome-based learning,” Glavin said.
John Carroll Fellow Asari Aniagolu (COL ’07) was taught by Cook in the John Carroll Forum and Introduction to Research courses.
“Dr. Cook was an embodiment of the program’s values. He always encouraged us to look at all of our interests as possible areas for future research,” Aniagolu said.
Pravin Rajan (SFS ’07), who also took Cook’s research course, called Cook a “cool guy.”
“He will make a remarkable Dean with his concern for students and their intellectual growth,” he said.
Cook helped restructure parts of the John Carroll program, including admissions, academic review, residence life and the program’s student academic journal, Mentis Vita.
“I understand the mission of the Carroll Program as training intellectual leaders – people capable of changing the world through research, communication and action,” Cook said. “I expect to always carry with me its values of intellectual excellence in service of the world.”
Cook holds both a bachelor of arts and masters degree in English from Georgetown. He received his doctorate from UCLA in Film and Television Studies.
He has served as co-chair of the Faculty in Residence Search Committee and vice-chair of the Media Board. This year he received the Outstanding Contribution to the Georgetown Community Award from the Office of Student Affairs.
Meredith Malburne, who worked in both the John Carroll fellowship office and the Georgetown Honor Council, will take Cook’s place in the John Carroll Program in January.