Brighid Dwyer

As Vice Dean for Academic Excellence and Engagement, Brighid Dwyer, Ph.D., provides leadership in pursuit of the School’s core commitments to achieving and maintaining excellence. She has twenty years of experience as a practitioner, scholar, and professor. Before joining Penn in 2021, she served as Associate Dean at Princeton University in the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life.

Dr. Dwyer also spent seven years at Villanova University as Assistant Professor in the Departments of Education and Counseling and the Department of Communication. She served as the Director of the Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) and Assistant Director of Research & Training. Prior to her time at Villanova, Brighid was an Adjunct Sociology Professor at Delaware County Community College.

Brighid has published numerous articles and book chapters and she serves on the boards of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center, the New Leadership Academy, and Marin Academy High School.

Previously, Brighid had a career in athletics. She served as an academic advisor, coach, and administrator at UCLA, University of Michigan, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, and the Black Women in Sport Foundation. She was a 2000 Olympic Swimming Trials qualifier and an NCAA All-American. 

Dwyer has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.