Meet the Dean of the College

Dr. Jackie Krasas, Dean of the College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Wake Forest University

Dr. Jackie Krasas is the Dean of the College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wake Forest University since July 1, 2023. 

Dean Krasas received her undergraduate degree with honors in Social Relations from Lehigh University, and both her master’s degree and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Southern California with concentrations in Gender Studies, Organizations, and Work. At Penn State University, she was a faculty member for 10 years in the Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, where she played a key role in the development of graduate education. In 2005, Dr. Krasas returned to her alma mater, Lehigh University, where she served as the Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for almost a decade. She then served for six years as the inaugural Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs and International Initiatives, working with directors of more than 20 interdisciplinary programs to improve interdisciplinary structures, collaborations, and education at the university. In 2020, Dr. Krasas was promoted to Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs, where among her many accomplishments, she guided faculty-related COVID policies, implemented new term faculty ranks, and revised the triennial review process in addition to leading and implementing a university-wide faculty salary equity review and subsequent salary adjustments.

Throughout these appointments, Dr. Krasas has shown extensive academic administrative experience in operations and leadership including curricular development, faculty development, strategic planning, budget and resource management, fundraising and alumni relations, and faculty hiring, retention, promotion, and tenure.

Dr. Krasas’ scholarship on social inequalities includes contingent and temporary work; sexual harassment; women in STEM; work and family; and motherhood. In addition to her peer-reviewed articles appearing in top journals, such as Gender & Society and Work and Occupations, she published two books. Her first book, Temps: The Many Faces of the Changing Workplace (Cornell/ILR Press, 2000) was one of the first to analyze both the structure of power and the meaning of temporary employment across different occupational contexts. Her most recent book, Still a Mother: Noncustodial Mothers, Gendered Institutions, and Social Change (Cornell University Press, 2021), sheds light on the challenges of contemporary motherhood through the lens of noncustodial mothers’ experiences as they navigate a set of gendered social institutions including employment, education, health care, and the legal system. Dr. Krasas was also the co-PI of Lehigh University’s five-year, $2.6 million NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant, “Building Community Beyond Academic Departments,” and co-led their membership in the Aspire IChange Network of the NSF Aspire Alliance. 

In addition to her work as Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Krasas also holds a faculty appointment as Professor with the Department of Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In this role, she continues her more than two decades of experience teaching classes in sociology and gender studies, from introductory courses to graduate-level instruction on social and feminist theory, workplace inequalities, and research methods.