Darlene Weaver, Ph.D., is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. She joined the University in July 2023 as provost, where she has led transformation throughout the academic enterprise, including strengthening the university's financial performance, implementing decision support and reimagining academic units to enhance student success and respond to workforce needs. Through the campus master planning process, she is supporting the evolution of UD’s unique learning-living environment for future generations.
Her focus on student success includes increasing student accessibility, improving student retention, expanding programs for first-generation and underresourced students, and implementing holistic advising and a Flight Crew to support every undergraduate student’s UD journey. Her initiatives include guaranteed experiential learning for all undergraduate students, who gain real-world skills and insights needed to be workforce-ready with support forged among faculty, donors, alumni, nonprofits and industry. Her commitment to improving the graduate and professional education experience includes curating a strategic portfolio of in-demand programs and elevating scholarship, research and practice.
Dr. Weaver champions curriculum development in artificial intelligence to ensure human thriving remains at the center of a University of Dayton education, and that students are prepared for work with emerging technologies. She supports faculty scholarship through the creation of the Office for Academic Research and improved learning spaces with attention to technology and innovation. She continues to champion curricular improvements, including cultivating new programs and majors.
Her efforts include forging and sustaining strategic partnerships and collaborations that are key to the University’s competitive strength, reputational excellence, social impact, and continuing influence as an anchor institution. She leverages regional and national partnerships and collaborations to support curricular and technological innovation, experiential learning, research opportunities for faculty, staff and students, and the accessibility of a UD education for all qualified students.
Dr. Weaver previously served as associate provost for academic affairs and professor of theology at Duquesne University, and she spent 11 years at Villanova University, where she earned tenure and was promoted to associate professor. She was also a visiting assistant professor at Georgetown University.
Her academic expertise is in ethics, and she holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. She is the author of dozens of articles and two monographs. In addition to serving on several boards in the Dayton region and beyond, Dr. Weaver is an associate editor for the Journal of Religious Ethics and is a former series co-editor for the Moral Traditions series at Georgetown University Press.