Amy C. Kimme Hea

Amy C. Kimme Hea, Ph.D., is Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Student Success in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. In this role, Dr. Kimme Hea is responsible for curriculum review and assessment, enrollment management, student recruitment, retention and completion, undergraduate advising, graduate studies, and student engagement. She leads the Graduate Council in SBS and serves on campus-wide committees including UCAAC and GCAAC. With the support of the Dean’s Office instructional team, Dr. Kimme Hea coordinates projects to support student learning, teacher development, and curriculum design and delivery in SBS and across the University of Arizona. 

After completing her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University in 2001, Dr. Amy C. Kimme Hea joined the graduate faculty in the Rhetoric, Composition, and Teaching of English Program in the Department of English at the University of Arizona. In addition to her faculty position, Dr. Kimme Hea served for over ten years as an administrator in the University of Arizona Writing Program. One highlight of her work as Director of the U of A Writing Program was launching a five-year longitudinal study of University of Arizona student writers (with co-PI Dr. Aimee C. Mapes). Funded by support from National Council of Teachers of English and Council of Writing Program Administrators, this ongoing study follows a cohort of U of A students through their academic careers and one year post-U of A to understand their metacognitive and affective relations to writing and literacy. Dr. Kimme Hea has published research in composition studies, computers and composition, and professional and technical communication on new media, hypertext theory, spatial rhetoric, assessment, and service learning. Her collection Going Wireless: A Critical Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies for Composition Teachers and Researchers was nominated for the Computers and Composition best book award, and her special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly on social media is the most widely read in that venue. Her most recent book, Telling Stories: Perspectives on Longitudinal Research shares researcher insights on longitudinal work. Dr. Kimme Hea has also published essays in edited collections and peer-reviewed journals in her field, and she is an editorial review board member for Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Computers and Composition. 

Dr. Kimme Hea has strong commitments to teaching and service. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in writing, rhetoric, technology studies, and professional and technical communication, and she has won recognition for her excellence in teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Kimme Hea has held national executive positions, Executive Board Member for the Council of Writing Program Administrators and Associate Chair of Consortium of Doctoral Programs in Rhetoric and Composition. Spanning her career at the University of Arizona, she has served in a range of leadership and support roles related to student engagement, faculty research, and assessment, including Acting Co-Director of Center for University Education Scholarship, VIP Advisory Board Member, U of A's Strategic Plan Pillar Owner for institutional excellence and student success, among others.