Nicholls Named Interim Dean for Jannen School

Amy Nicholls has been named interim dean for the Jannen School of Arts and Sciences at Trine University. She currently serves as chair and assistant professor of the Department of Humanities and Communication. Nicholls replaces Craig Laker, who recently was named dean of the College and Graduate and Professional Studies. She will oversee five departments – Mathematics, Informatics and Physics; Criminal Justice, Psychology and Social Studies; Music; English as a Second Language; and Humanities and Communication. Nicholls will continue to teach and serve as chair of the Department of Humanities and Communication for this school year. During her five years of teaching at Trine, Nicholls has received the Jannen Renaissance Scholar Teaching Award (2016) and the Robert Andrew and Anne Ewing Smith Excellence in Teaching Award in Arts and Sciences (2013). Nicholls earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in secondary English education from Tri-State University, now Trine, in 1997, and her Master of Arts in English from Western Michigan University in 2004. Her teaching experience includes serving as a Florence Crane Women’s Correctional Facility adjunct for Kellogg Community College in Coldwater, Michigan; teacher at Camden-Frontier High School in Camden, Michigan, and Coldwater High School in Coldwater, Michigan; adjunct faculty at Baker College in Jackson, Michigan; and as instructor and assistant professor at Trine.