Sacred Heart University has named Dr. Jonas Zdanys of North Haven, Connecticut,  the associate vice president for Academic Affairs, and a professor of English, effective August 17. He was the Chief Academic Officer and Associate Commissioner of Higher Education for the State of Connecticut, where he served for more than a decade. An 18-year tenure at Yale University included being the associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and, for seven years, assistant to the president. He also taught in the departments of Comparative Literature and English. Dr. Zdanys is an award-winning author who has published 38 books, 35 of them collections of his poetry and his translations into English of Lithuanian poetry and prose.

In his capacity as associate vice president, he joins the University’s senior academic leadership with special responsibility for strategic academic planning, University College, the library, and learning services for students.

Dr. Thomas V. Forget, Sacred Heart University’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, noted that the University takes special pleasure in welcoming Dr. Zdanys at this “transformational moment in the University’s history. This exceptional educator and man of letters brings to Sacred Heart a passion for higher education as a leader in academic programming and development for all institutions of higher education in Connecticut. He combines an extraordinary intellect with a practitioner’s sense of the possible and an overriding sense of mission. We are thrilled to have him with us.”