Erin McNamara Horvat, PhD
As Senior Vice Provost, Erin McNamara Horvat, PhD, coordinates efforts across the areas of Faculty Advancement and Undergraduate Affairs to advance Drexel’s mission of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives. Leading the areas of Undergraduate Education, Assessment and Accreditation, and Faculty Advancement, Horvat works with her team to integrate a data-driven approach to faculty engagement with the development of innovative pedagogy to deliver an excellent undergraduate student experience.
Biography
After a 20-year career as a professor of education, Horvat joined the Office of the Provost in 2016, establishing the inaugural Office of Faculty Affairs — now the Office of Faculty Advancement — to support Drexel faculty throughout the professional lifecycle. The Office coordinates efforts across the University community to attract, recruit, retain, develop, promote and support diverse and talented faculty who engage and inspire our students. In 2018, Horvat also envisioned and spearheaded the development of Drexel’s Teaching and Learning Center, an independent unit housed within the Office of Faculty Advancement that provides faculty with professional development opportunities and support to help improve student learning and enhance their teaching.
As an ethnographer and sociologist of education, Horvat’s research agenda has explored how race and class shape access throughout the educational pipeline; she has focused on the role of social and cultural capital in shaping families’ interactions with schools, students’ college experiences, college access and high school dropout and reentry. In addition, she has been deeply committed to work with out-of-school youth through her support of Youth Build Philadelphia Charter School as a longtime board member and four-year board chair. Since joining Drexel in 2015, her research has also focused on the groundbreaking and visionary civic engagement efforts being undertaken by Drexel University in the West Philadelphia neighborhood in which it resides.
Horvat received her MA and PhD in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles.