Heather F. Ball, Ph.D.

Assistant Provost for Faculty Engagement and Development
Director, Center for Faculty Success and Development
Associate Professor
Newman Hall 242 / St. Augustine Hall 403
718-990-1860
ballh@stjohns.edu

Dr. Ball currently leads the Center for Faculty Success and Development, whose mission is to enhance the academic environment at St. John’s University through support of faculty teaching and research. The Center is dedicated to augmenting our faculty's professional development, done so through diverse programming, fellowships, events, and our recently-launched University-wide faculty mentoring initiative created under the auspices of the Office of the Provost. Expanding upon mentoring activities conducted at the departmental level, this initiative initially focused on new and early career faculty but now includes midlevel and senior faculty members as well. The mentoring initiative is carried out in collaboration with deans, chairs, and faculty members from across the University to establish programmatic goals, guidelines for mentors and mentees, and program outcomes.

Dr. Ball came to St. John’s in 2017, having earned her Bachelor’s and Master of Letters degrees in Medieval Studies from New York University and the University of Glasgow (respectively); her Master’s degree in Library Science from Queens College; and after 10 years serving as the Global Network Research Manager for a leading global advertising agency. She previously served as the Critical Pedagogy Librarian and Coordinator for Information Literacy Instruction within the University Libraries and is an Associate Professor. Having recently attained her doctorate through the University at Buffalo, SUNY, Dr. Ball's dissertation research investigated the impact of an individualized information literacy workshop series (designed with the critical race theory as its theoretical framework) on the learning outcomes of first-year students of color. Her other research interests span multiple disciplines, namely information science, Victorian studies, digital humanities, and medieval Britain.