Servaty-Seib named associate vice provost for teaching and learning

Heather Servaty-Seib

The Office of the Provost has announced that Heather Servaty-Seib, professor of counseling psychology in the College of Education and associate dean for student life in the Honors College, has been named associate vice provost for teaching and learning, effective immediately. 

Servaty-Seib has been serving as interim associate vice provost of teaching and learning since May 2020 and previously served as associate head of educational studies.

In her now-permanent role, she will continue to report to Jenna Rickus, vice provost for teaching and learning. 

“As interim associate vice provost, Heather has provided valuable leadership around student success during the pandemic,” Rickus says. “Her innovative and evidence-based approaches have made a real difference for students. I look forward to what she will achieve in this role.”

Servaty-Seib will work most directly with Teaching and Learning units focused on student success, academic advising, exploratory studies and career success. She will also be engaged in efforts to expand effective use of student data to inform teaching and learning practices.

Servaty-Seib joined the Purdue faculty in 2000 as assistant professor. Her research interests include a broad range of areas within the field of thanatology (i.e., the study of death and dying) with particular emphasis on late adolescent and young adult grief, death and dying-related communication issues, and social support offered to the bereaved. 

Much of her recent scholarship has been focused in the areas of college student bereavement, loss and suicidal ideation, including a co-edited volume titled "Assisting Bereaved College Students" and an edited volume of narratives by grieving college students. Servaty-Seib is also lead editor of the third edition of the Handbook of Thanatology. Her scholarship has been used to support the development of college student grief absence policies at Purdue and other U.S. institutions.

She received her Ph.D. and master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of North Texas and completed her undergraduate studies at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.