About Academic Affairs Barbara Couture
Barbara Couture is Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of English. She is the Chief Academic Officer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, providing academic leadership for UNL programs in Academic Affairs and working in cooperation with the Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources. She has held the post since Aug. 15, 2004.
At UNL, Couture has shepherded the university’s decennial accreditation activities, led an ongoing academic strategic planning exercise, worked to improve undergraduate teaching in a variety of programs including the Initiative for Teaching and Learning Excellence, and championed a number of international initiatives, particularly in China.
She is chair elect of the Executive Committee for the Council on Academic Affairs for the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.
Prior to her UNL appointment, Couture was dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Washington State University in Pullman, a post she assumed in 1998.
She earned a bachelor's degree with high distinction from the University of Michigan (1970) where she also earned master and doctor of arts degrees in English language and literature (1973, 1980). She began her academic career as an assistant professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit in 1980, was promoted to associate professor, achieved tenure in 1986 and achieved the rank of professor in 1994. At Wayne State, she also served as an associate dean for curriculum in the College of Liberal Arts (1990-91) and associate dean for metropolitan programs and summer sessions in the College of Lifelong Learning (1993-97).
An award-winning writer, Couture received the Outstanding Book Award at the 2000 Conference on College Composition and Communication for "Toward a Phenomenological Rhetoric: Writing, Profession and Altruism." Her publications include six authored/edited books and numerous chapters and articles. Couture also sits on the editorial boards of three academic journals.
