Dr. Honora Howell Chapman was named interim dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, effective July 22. Chapman succeeds Dr. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, who will serve as Fresno State's new provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Robert Harper, interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, announced the appointment May 16.

Dr. Chapman has served as associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities since January 2016. She helped the college’s faculty and staff ensure that future generations of Fresno State students enjoy a superior, enriched education in the arts and humanities. Through our students, she strives to help the San Joaquin Valley continue to grow even more culturally and intellectually vibrant.

Dr. Chapman came to Fresno State in 2002 as an assistant professor of Classics and Humanities, and soon became the coordinator of Classics in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures. From May 2009 to June 2014, she served as the director of the Smittcamp Family Honors College, and in 2013, she received the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Chapman also inaugurated the University lecture series Fresno State Talks in spring 2013, and she delivered the first Fresno State convocation faculty address in August 2014.

As a scholar, Dr. Chapman is a world-renowned authority on the Greek texts of Flavius Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian. She has published in some of the most prestigious venues in the field of Classics.

Dr. Chapman currently serves on the boards of San Joaquin Valley Town Hall and California Humanities.

With family roots in the Valley stretching back to the 1860s, Dr. Chapman is a fourth-generation resident.