Badia Ahad will serve as Emory University’s next provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, beginning a two-year term on Nov. 1. Ahad is currently dean of Emory’s Oxford College, a position she has held since 2023.
“Dean Ahad has been an extraordinary member of our community,” says Interim Emory University President Leah Ward Sears. “She has demonstrated remarkable leadership, vision and a genuine commitment to cultivating a strong and inclusive academic community. At Oxford, she has overseen academic affairs, student life and operations to elevate both the faculty and student experience. Her thoughtful leadership has already left a lasting mark, and I have every confidence she will bring that same energy and excellence to the provost role.”
As Emory’s chief academic officer, Ahad will collaborate with other university leaders and the deans from each of Emory’s nine schools and colleges to formulate strategy and academic priorities and ensure appropriate allocation of budget and resources. In addition to managing the faculty promotion and tenure process, the provost generates cross-cutting opportunities and initiatives in undergraduate, graduate and professional education and student life.
“As provost, I will advance Emory's academic mission by enhancing the conditions in which our students thrive and our faculty produce life-changing, life-saving scholarship and research,” Ahad says. “The breadth of this work — from the arts and humanities to clinical research and AI — distinguishes Emory as one of the nation's finest institutions. Even with all we have achieved, I believe we have tremendous potential to create even greater impact in the lives of our students and in the service of humanity.”
At Oxford College, Ahad led the development of a comprehensive strategic plan to guide the school’s progress over the next five years. She established a framework to address competitive compensation, ensuring the retention and recruitment of top faculty and staff talent. She launched the Oxford Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship to enrich the curriculum and strengthen the faculty pipeline, and she transformed Oxford's approach to external funding by prioritizing a grant-seeking culture — increasing external grant funding by nearly 50% in just 18 months.
She also partnered with the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work to bring Master of Social Work interns to Oxford, enhancing wellness and mental health support for students, and founded Global Oxford to expand international learning opportunities, including the Oxford Launch London program.
“What distinguishes Dean Ahad is not only this record of accomplishment but also the qualities she brings as a leader,” Sears says. “She is admired for her ability to build community, to listen carefully, and to act with both courage and compassion.”
Ahad will serve a two-year term as provost. She succeeds Interim Provost Lanny Liebeskind, who has held the position since January. Liebeskind will return to his role as senior vice provost for academic affairs, supporting Ahad in her first months as provost before taking a year-long sabbatical in 2026.
“Interim Provost Liebeskind answered the call to serve an institution he has called home for over 40 years, providing our community with leadership and grace during a period of transformation and opportunity,” Sears says. “I appreciate his guidance and advocacy for our academic community, as well as the support he has shown me as interim president.”
In the coming days, Emory will name an interim dean for Oxford College to “to allow the college to move forward with strength as it continues to advance its strategic priorities, support faculty and staff, and enrich the student experience,” Sears explains.
Breadth and depth of academic leadership
Ahad’s career reflects both depth and breadth in academic leadership. As dean of Oxford College, she has served as the chief academic and administrative officer for the school, which is home to approximately 1,000 Emory first- and second-year students on the university’s original campus in Oxford, Georgia. She also holds a faculty appointment as the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English.
Before arriving at Emory, Ahad served as vice provost for faculty affairs at Loyola University Chicago, where she helped position the institution for its successful attainment of R-1 Carnegie Classification in 2025, the top national designation for research universities. At Loyola, she also secured and directed a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Adaptation grant to strengthen mentoring, professional pathways, equitable workload policies and interdisciplinary connections for faculty. She created and led a seed funding program that significantly expanded research capacity, producing extraordinary returns on investment — over 2,500% in one year and nearly 10,000% the next — prompting Loyola to make it a permanent program.
Ahad has earned a national reputation as an expert on faculty development. She served for nearly a decade as director of academic training for the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, where she provided guidance and training for more than two dozen colleges and universities as well as the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Carnegie Institute of Science and the Volcker Alliance on professional development for postdocs, early career faculty and aspiring higher education administrators.
A scholar of African American literature and culture, Ahad earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MA and PhD at the University of Notre Dame. Her personal research sits at the intersection of cultural studies and positive psychology, a field grounded in the idea that social good, well-being and flourishing are at the core of human experience.
“This perspective informs my approach to academic leadership, which is to create environments where students, faculty, staff and the communities around them can thrive,” Ahad says. “I’m proud of what we have accomplished together at Oxford and honored to continue advancing Emory and its people as the university’s next provost.”
Ahad’s appointment “marks an important moment for Emory,” Sears says. “I am confident that with Provost Ahad’s leadership, we will continue to strengthen our academic mission and chart a thoughtful path for the years ahead.”