Leadership and Staff

Leslie Durham, Ph.D., is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Boise State University, where she has also served as Associate Dean, Director of the School of the Arts and as a faculty member in Theatre, Film and Creative Writing. She is in her seventh year leading Boise State’s largest and most diverse academic college, which includes 21 departments spanning the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences. Arts and Sciences is the academic home of 216 part-time faculty, 224 full-time staff and 378 full-time faculty, who serve 5,345 undergraduate students and 345 graduate students while also delivering 84% of the university’s general education curriculum. The college has a thriving research portfolio leading to more than $26M in expenditures last year and is grateful for strong philanthropic support, which totaled $8.8M last year.

Under Dr. Durham’s leadership, the College of Arts and Sciences has launched a variety of innovative initiatives including the School of the Arts, the School of the Environment and the School for the Digital Future; the COAS Innovation Lab, which has awarded approximately $500K to faculty within the college; Bronco Gap Year, a program that supported student learning during the pandemic; and interdisciplinary degree programs including Film and Television Arts, Environmental Science, Neuroscience and Project Management.

She serves on the Planning Advisory Committee for Budget Modernization, the University Council on Tribal Initiatives, the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee for Shared Governance, the Deans’ Council and the University Administrative Council.

Dr. Durham remains active as a scholar, and her current work is funded through the National Endowment for the Arts Research Labs program.

Makenzie Phillips is the Assistant Dean of Operations and Strategic Initiatives for the College of Arts and Sciences. With a BA in Communications from the University of Arizona and a Master’s degree in Nonverbal Communication from San Diego State University, Makenzie works as a strategic partner to the COAS executive team, department leadership and staff to ensure operations, strategic planning and the execution of initiatives are successful.

Kelly Arispe is the Launch Director for the School for the Digital Future and a Professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages. A community-engaged scholar, she directs the Pathways Project, an Open Educational Resource (OER) repository with over 900 activities supporting world language teaching in ten languages, widely adopted by K-12 and university educators. Her research focuses on Open Educational Practices (OEP), Virtual Exchange and Technology-Enhanced Language Learning.

Amanda Ashley is a professor of Urban Studies and Community Development, with appointments in the School of Public Service and the School of the Arts. Her research focuses on the role of placemaking in cities and communities, and her recent work focuses on arts and cultural planning, on the role of higher education institutions as arts and cultural anchors and on the emergence of creative city policies and governance. She is a Boise Department of Arts and History Commissioner and sits on the Garden City Placemaking Planning Group.

Doug Bullock is a Senior Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. His responsibilities are primarily budget and fiscal matters for the college. He earned his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Iowa in 1995, joining the Math Department at Boise State that same year. He has published research in low-dimensional topology, college mathematics pedagogy and institutional change.

Marie-Anne de Graaff is the Associate Dean for Research, Creative Activity and Graduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. She also serves as Associate Editor for the journal ‘Biogeochemistry’. Her research advances a basic understanding of plant-soil relationships to improve soil management for sustainable agriculture, inform ecosystem restoration practices and predict and mitigate atmospheric CO2 concentrations through soil carbon sequestration. She received a BS and MS in Forestry and Environmental Management, a PhD in Environmental Science from Wageningen University (the Netherlands) and worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Bioscience Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Kevin Feris is the Director of the School of the Environment. He formerly served as the Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences for 8 years. His research focuses on understanding how microbial communities respond to anthropogenic influences on natural ecosystems, including changes in climate, presence of chronic ecosystem stressors and emerging pollutants. Biotechnology research in his lab includes investigations into novel microbial systems for renewable energy generation, natural resource damage assessment, bioremediation and biotechnology. He received his PhD in Microbial Ecology from the University of Montana in 2003.

Kelly Myers is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Success in the College of Arts and Sciences and an Associate Professor of Writing Studies. In her role as Associate Dean, she is responsible for key areas of student success, including Advising, First-Year Experience and Student Persistence and Re-enrollment. She co-authored the 6th edition of The Curious Writer and the 10th edition of The Curious Researcher, and she has published on the Greek concept of metanoia in connection with failure rhetoric, revision pedagogies and kairotic opportunity. She received her PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and the Teaching of English in 2008 from the University of Arizona.

Tony Roark is a Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Academic Leadership in the College of Arts and Sciences. He has previously served as Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Dean of COAS and interim Provost. His research interests lie primarily in the history of philosophy with a special focus on Aristotle. He received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Washington in 1999.