Dr. Jennifer Holmes, dean of the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS), has announced a new leadership team with the appointment of Dr. Banks Miller as Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Dr. Denise Paquette Boots as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education.
Dr. Miller is currently the Program Head for Political Science; Public Policy & Political Economy and will succeed Dr. Alex Piquero on November 1. Dr. Piquero has served as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs since 2015. Dr. Miller previously served as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Political Science program. As Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, his focus will be on attracting and retaining high-quality graduate students, developing opportunities for graduate student socialization, and increasing the presence of underrepresented students in the EPPS graduate programs. Dr. Miller received his doctorate in Political Science from Ohio State University in 2009. He graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 2004. His research interests include judicial decision making and the role of attorneys in U.S. politics. His most recent research project analyzed attempts at political control of federal prosecutors in the United States.
Dr. Boots is currently a professor of Public Policy and Political Economy at UT Dallas and will succeed Dr. Euel Elliott on Jan. 1, 2020. Dr. Elliott has served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education since 2013. Along with being a professor, Dr. Boots is the Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Urban Policy Research at the UT Dallas. Dr. Boots will lead initiatives for creating a community college recruitment plan and work to strengthen our ties with local community colleges and high schools, as well as supporting undergraduate student success and retention. Dr. Boots served as an undergraduate advisor and received her doctorate in Criminology from the University of South Florida in 2006 before joining the faculty here at UT Dallas in August of that year. In 2009, Dr. Boots was one of nine tenure-track professors across the University of Texas system chosen to receive the prestigious UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award for excellence in the classroom. In 2016 she received the President’s Teaching Excellence Award. Dr. Boots’ research interests include issues related to interpersonal violence, with an emphasis on domestic violence and homicide, child abuse and neglect, mental health, life-course criminology, neuropsychological vulnerabilities, capital punishment, gendered pathways to crime and victimization, parricide, and outcome and process evaluations of problem-solving courts and criminal justice programs.
