Gregory Tomso, Ph.D.

Download the original file of Dr. Tomso's CV (PDF)

Education

DUKE UNIVERSITY
Ph.D. in English

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
B.A. in English & History, minor in German
Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude

Current Certifications

  • Student Affairs and the Law Certification, NASPA (Highest Competency Level)
  • Introduction to Incident Command System (IS-100.C), FEMA, Emergency Management Institute
  • Title IX and Student Conduct Compliance, SUNY, Student Conduct Institute

Leadership Experience

UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA, Pensacola, FL

A public university serving nearly 15,000 students; top-ranked among Florida’s regional institutions for student outcomes; recently earned Carnegie “R2” status.

Vice President, Academic Engagement and Student Affairs (2021–July 2025)
Currently on Sabbatical Through August 2026

Executive Leadership

  • Managed a $30M annual operating budget (state funds, tuition, student fees, capital improvement, foundation, and auxiliary revenues).
  • Provided executive oversight to merged divisions of Academic Engagement and Student Affairs, supporting nearly 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
  • Supervised 10 direct reports and oversaw 160 full-time employees plus 300 student employees across 34 departments.
  • Led extensive divisional self-study resulting in a five-year strategic plan prioritizing student well-being, academic success, experiential learning, civility/inclusion, and staff development.
  • Created divisional assessment standards and KPIs for all operational areas; consistently meet or exceed university-wide performance metrics.

Enrollment and Student Success

  • Provided strategic leadership for university enrollment efforts, achieving a 17% total enrollment increase in five years and record international and Honors student enrollment.
  • Increased first-to-second-year retention from 82% to 88% over three years.
  • Propelled UWF into the top three for student outcomes in Florida’s statewide university system; Florida system ranked #1 by U.S. News for eight consecutive years.

Faculty and Academic Affairs Partnerships

  • Supervised high-impact practices grant program awarding $80K to faculty annually.
  • Collaborated with Faculty Senate to improve the student academic misconduct process and improve faculty satisfaction with outcomes.
  • Launched $30K in scholarships for a new retention-focused undergraduate research program.
  • Provided strategic leadership with offices of Institutional Research and Institutional Effectiveness to complete 10-year reaccreditation with no findings.
  • Developed university’s strategic enrollment plan in conjunction with Enrollment Affairs.
  • Led efforts with deans and department chairs to improve course scheduling, eliminating seat shortages for first-year students.
  • Partnered with the College of Health to create a comprehensive student retention campaign, including revised communications, enhanced engagement opportunities, and a new nursing living-learning community.
  • Solicited input from faculty leaders to design an online “one-stop” help page and dedicated email support for faculty.
  • Created four funded Faculty Development Fellowships within the division to promote research and teaching innovations.
  • Achieved 100% faculty participation in a voluntary academic progress checkpoint process, enabling timely student interventions.
  • Hosted regular campus-wide information sessions (200+ faculty attendees) on state/federal legislative updates.
  • Partnered with the College of Engineering to overhaul tutoring and advising resources and increase student utilization of services.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

  • Established the Office of Campus Culture and Access to create new campus programs promoting civility, inclusion, and belonging; hired new staff for cross-cultural awareness programs.
  • Enhanced support for students with disabilities, expanding beyond ADA compliance to include mentoring and outreach events.
  • Significantly expanded the campus food pantry and more than doubled private donations to the student emergency fund.
  • Developed new training for faculty to address mental health crises, disability services, and supporting students on the Autism Spectrum.
  • Created the university’s first LGBTQ+ resource space and substantially increased the division’s hiring of Black and Latinx employees.

Operations and Employee Development

  • Completed major facilities improvements, including upgrades to eight residence halls, fitness and aquatic center, health clinics, and a $90M contract for a new football stadium/residence hall.
  • Established a new development position, secured a $1.6M CCAMPIS grant, and raised $68K in divisional donations for FY 2023–24; generated $4.3M in annual auxiliary revenue.
  • Reduced full-time staff vacancy rate from 17% to 5%; implemented annual increases in employee minimum salaries for three consecutive years.
  • Strengthened crisis response readiness through staff training, tabletop exercises, updated emergency plans, IT enhancements, and crisis communication protocols.
  • Achieved a 95% staff approval rating for understanding the divisional mission and how staff roles advance strategic goals.

Director, Kugelman Honors Program (2017–2021)

  • Drove record first-year Honors recruitment (125 students) and raised program completion from 16% to 50%.
  • Expanded overall Honors enrollment to 300 students, contributing to UWF’s designation as a “highly selective” institution (<50% acceptance rate) in 2019.
  • Led a university committee to establish the Office of Undergraduate Research and secure start-up funding.
  • Led stewardship for a $1M naming gift for the program and secured $100K+ in additional gifts.
  • Partnered with faculty across all colleges to develop dozens of new interdisciplinary seminars on topics of timely/timeless significance.
  • Created new internship programs with six community partners (serving 20+ students/year) and established a direct employment pipeline with the Andrews Educational Foundation.
  • Organized major events on African American history/culture, including a “Race and the Community” speaker series, annual trips to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and a Black Lives Matter mural initiative.
  • Achieved a 100% medical school acceptance rate for Honors pre-med graduates.
  • Oversaw migration of all Honors courses, internships, research projects, and high-impact practices to online formats during COVID-19.

Department Chair, English (2014–2017)

  • Managed an academic unit of 20 full-time faculty, 30 adjuncts, and three staff, with an annual $2M budget.
  • Secured $20K+ in new departmental funds for faculty research, teaching, and professional development.
  • Guaranteed conference travel funding for all full-time faculty members.
  • Developed and launched a fully online M.A. in English, increasing graduate enrollment by 300% (to 45 students).
  • Streamlined scheduling and staffing for ~250 course sections/year (5,000+ student enrollment), cutting costs by $75K/year.
  • Chaired the University-Wide High-Achieving Student Committee, resulting in a plan for recruiting/retaining top-performing undergraduates.
  • Partnered with two regional state colleges to articulate transfer pathways for incoming students.
  • Mentored junior faculty on five promotion/tenure committees.
  • Led a departmental curriculum overhaul to add professional development learning outcomes, improve degree completion rates, and increase elective options.
  • Guided stewardship for two gifts totaling $75K to support student scholarships and faculty research.

Additional Employment Experience

  • Associate Professor of English, UWF (2010–Present)
  • Associate Director, Kugelman Honors Program, UWF (2009–2017)
  • Assistant Professor of English, UWF (2004–2010)
  • Assistant Professor of English, Ithaca College (2001–2004)

Awards and Honors

  • UWF President’s Award for Faculty Leadership in Diversity (2019)
  • “Team Green,” Independent Weekly newspaper recognition for “green” leadership in the Gulf Coast (2011)
  • UWF Distinguished Teaching Award (2011, 2008), university-wide teaching award from the Student Government Association
  • UWF Nominee, Florida Teacher of the Year Award (2011, 2008)
  • UWF “U-Matter” Excellence Award for outstanding service to students (2008)
  • Portz Grant Recipient, National Collegiate Honors Council (2010)
  • Civic Reflections Grant Recipient, Florida Humanities Council (2008)
  • Scholarly & Creative Activities Grant Recipient, UWF (2005)
  • Runner-Up, Council of Editors of Learned Journals (Best Special Issue) (2004)
  • Academic Project Grant Recipient, Ithaca College Provost’s Office (2003)
  • Faculty Research Award, Ithaca College (2003)
  • Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Ithaca College (2003)

National Media Appearances

  • “The Power of Teaching in Polemical Spaces: Humanizing Learning & Empowering Higher Ed’s Promise of Critical Thinking,” Mindset in Motion Podcast, hosted by Bill Heinrich (October 18, 2023).
  • “The New Rhetoric of AIDS,” Chicago Public Radio, Odyssey with Gretchen Helfrich (February 28, 2005).

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • “Teaching Through Polemical Spaces at a Florida Public University” (with Jocelyn Evans and Kwame Owusu-Daaku), Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 6.2 (2023).
  • “HIV Criminals: Gay Men, the Law, and the New Political Economy of HIV,” in War on Sex, eds. Trevor Hoppe and David Halperin (Durham: Duke UP, 2015).
  • “Lincoln’s ‘Unfathomable Sorrow’: Vinnie Ream, Sculptural Realism, and the Cultural Work of Sympathy in Nineteenth-Century America,” European Journal of American Studies 2 (2011), https://ejas.revues.org/9139.
  • “The Humanities and HIV/AIDS: Where Do We Go From Here?,” PMLA 125:2 (2010), 443-453.
  • “On the ‘Failure’ of Postmodernism in Medical Sociology,” Social Theory and Health 7:1 (2009), 55-73.
  • “Risky Subjects: Public Health, Personal Narrative, and the Stakes of Qualitative Research,” Sexualities 12:1 (2009), 61-78.
  • “Viral Sex and the Politics of Life,” South Atlantic Quarterly 107:2 (2008), 265-285. Reprinted in The Routledge Queer Studies Reader, eds. Donald Hall and Annamarie Jagose (New York: Routledge, 2012).
  • “Barebacking, Bug Chasing, and the Risks of Care,” Literature and Medicine 23.1 (2004), 88-111. Reprinted in Difference and Identity, eds. Jonathan M. Metzl and Suzanne Poirier (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2005), 88-111.
  • “The Queer History of Leprosy and Same-Sex Love,” American Literary History 14:4 (2002), 747-775.
  • “Reading Queerly: A Presentist’s Confession,” Romantic Circles (February 2002).

National and Regional Leadership and Service

  • Committee Member, Health Fee Usage Committee, Florida Board of Governor’s Committee on Student Affairs (2023-2024)
  • President, Southern Regional Honors Council, (2016-2017)
  • Vice President, Southern Regional Honors Council (2015 – 2016)
  • Conference Planning Committee, Student Poster Session Chair, National Collegiate Honors Council (2010 – 2013), reviewed 175+ student presentation abstracts and organizing judging for student poster awards
  • Publications Board, National Collegiate Honors Council (2011 – 2012)
  • Workshop Organizer, “From Bodybuilding to Nation Building: Health and Disease in the Nineteenth Century,” Co-Chair with Professor Ingrid Gessner, University of Regensburg, Germany, European Association of American Studies biennial conference, Izmir, Turkey (2012)
  • Presidential Panel Organizer, “Food Matters: The Global Food Crisis and Local Food Activism,” American Studies Association (2011)
  • National Planning Committee, American Studies Association (2011), reviewed 400+ scholarly paper abstracts for the ASA annual meeting, and organized accepted papers into 45+ panels. Additionally contributed to development conference themes
  • Workshop Organizer, “Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Art – Between Nation Building and Individuation,” Co-chaired with Professor Ina Bergmann, University of Wuerzburg, Germany, European Association of American Studies biennial conference, Oslo, Norway (2008)
Presidential Search Home
Gregory Tomso CV (PDF)