Biography
The Dean has a doctoral degree in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton as well as two master’s degrees in English, one from Indiana State University and another from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan.
She has held many positions in academia, including a variety of leadership roles from 2003 to 2017 as a faculty member at the University of Indianapolis, including professor of English, chair and acting chair of the Department of English, interim and associate director of the Honors College, and an honors faculty member. She also was on the faculty in 2002 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was a Cultural Diversity/Minority Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford from 2000 to 2002.
In addition to her experience in higher education leadership, Amano served from 2009 to 2018 as a member of the National Collegiate Honors Council on the board of directors and as secretary. She has participated in many trainings and conferences, including attending the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2004 and 2013. She also has published several articles in publications, including The Journal of Popular Culture, Glimmer Train Stories, The Dime Novel Round-up, Contemporary Literary Criticism and Notes on Contemporary Literature. Her work has been presented at many national conferences.
Aside from her work as a leader in academia and her writing, Amano is a member of the American Association of University Women, a nonprofit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. She and her husband, Tom Weller, are looking forward to joining community organizations in Victoria, especially in areas related to the arts, she said.