The Angie Warren Perkins Award is named for the first dean of women at UT. This award honors outstanding leadership in campus governance or administration at the level of department head, director, or below.
Deborah Welsh
Deborah Welsh, head of the Department of Psychology, is being honored for her initiative and creative approach to managing a department with UT’s largest enrollment of undergraduate students and one of the nation’s largest doctoral programs.
She’s been an accomplished scholar and change agent throughout her twenty-one years on the psychology faculty. But she’s made a noted difference as department head since 2012.
Her leadership has brought about a new level of inclusiveness and shared decision making through several new committees, including one that engages tenured faculty in the oversight and mentoring of tenure-track colleagues.
In every role, she’s worked to enhance appreciation for diversity. As department head, she formed the Psychology Diversity Council to focus everyone on goals for increasing diversity among faculty and students and supporting a culture that values differences. Five years ago, she helped found UT’s yearlong Leadership Training Program for women, which has since expanded to include men.
She’s an astute advocate who has helped increase the number of faculty lines and expanded UT’s neuroscience community. She was part of creating a new interdisciplinary neuroscience undergraduate major and helped bring three world-class professors to UT through joint appointments with UT Medical Center. The department’s partnership with UT Medical Center also involves placing faculty and students in research, patient care, and training through the Pat Summitt Alzheimer’s Clinic.