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About

Our Mission

The Office of Faculty Affairs exists to support and champion Vanderbilt faculty at every stage of their career.

We will collaborate across all units to:

  • Amplify faculty achievements, experiences and innovations
  • Demystify the paths of career advancement
  • Develop essential skills, programs and networks
  • Ensure the quality and integrity of academic programs
  • Innovate powerful teaching tools, resources and technologies
  • Nurture a collaborative culture of discovery
Duane Watson

Vice Provost Duane Watson

Duane Watson is the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and the Frank W. Mayborn Chair of Psychology and Human Development in Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.  He earned his A.B. in Psychology from Princeton University, and received his doctorate in Cognitive Science from M.I.T.  Watsonmoved to the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2016.  

 

Dr. Watson's research focuses on the cognitive processes that underlie language production, comprehension, and reading.  Duane Watson’s primary interest is in understanding the cognitive mechanisms that underlie human communication.  He studies how speakers use varying aspects of prosody like speech rate, rhythm, pausing, and intonation to communicate, and how listeners use this information in decoding speech.  Watson is also interested in how individual differences in language experience and cognitive abilities contribute to language production, comprehension, and reading.  He uses a variety of different methods to study these questions, including referential communication games, computational methods, reading experiments, and eye-tracking studies. 

 

His research has been funded by the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation.  He is a former Associate Editor at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, and has served on the Psychonomic Society Governing Board. He has also served as a past Chair of the Psychonomic Society Governing Board.

Leadership Team

  • Catherine Gavin Loss

    Catherine Gavin Loss

    Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

  • Alan Wiseman

    Alan Wiseman

    Associate Provost for Special Projects

  • Jennifer Wilson

    Jennifer Wilson

    Director of the Office of Education Design and Development

  • Danielle Certa

    Danielle Certa

    Director of Faculty Appointments

  • Jermaine Soto

    Jermaine Soto

    Senior Director for Faculty Advancement

  • Xavier Purdy

    Xavier Purdy

    Assistant Provost for Special Initiatives