• Dean’s Bio

Craig H. Kennedy, Ph.D.

Dean and Professor
University of Georgia College of Education
chk@uga.edu

Craig H. Kennedy is the 15th dean of the University of Georgia College of Education and a professor of communication sciences and special education.

Prior to joining UGA in January 2013, Kennedy was senior associate dean and professor of special education and pediatrics at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He was chair of its top-ranked special education department from 2007-09.

Kennedy’s research focuses on aggression and self-injury in people with autism, as well as social relationship development and inclusive education for students with autism and related disabilities. He has published over 150 scholarly articles, book chapters and books, and presented more than 300 papers at national and international conferences. He has been principal or co-investigator on projects receiving more than $16 million in extramural funding and has served as a member of nine editorial boards and as an associate editor for three journals.

Kennedy has received the Educator of the Year award from the Nashville Mayor’s Advisory Council for People with Disabilities, the B.F. Skinner New Researcher Award from the American Psychological Association and the Alice H. Hayden Award from the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps.

Prior to Vanderbilt, Kennedy was an associate professor in the departments of psychiatry and clinical pharmacology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He began his academic career as an assistant professor of special education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

He earned his doctorate in special education from the University of California, Santa Barbara.