Education Dean Frances Kochan announced the appointment of Dr. Ivan Watts as the college's acting director of diversity, recruitment and retention.

Watts, associate professor in the college's Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, will serve on a half-time basis while maintaining his regular faculty duties.

In this capacity, Watts will oversee the college's efforts to focus on recruiting and retaining students and faculty from traditionally underrepresented populations.  He will also work with faculty, staff and students in fulfilling the college's overall diversity goals, which include increasing faculty and student diversity; practicum and internship placement diversity; faculty involvement in international study and research; and employing approaches to foster an understanding and sensitivity to diversity issues.

Watts joined the Auburn faculty in 1999 as an assistant professor and was promoted as a tenured associate professor in 2004.  He received his Ed.D. in education from the University of Cincinnati, a master's in public policy from the University of Buffalo, and a bachelor's in criminal justice from Ohio State University.  Watts' teaching and research interests include social justice, youth and school violence, school desegregation, structural and institutional violence, and critical social theory.