Family Weekend
Join us for the Family Weekend Celebration Kick-off Event on Friday, April 11, 2025!
College of Liberal Arts Family Weekend Representatives
Melissa Ossian, Director of Advising and Megan Conner, Academic Advising Coordinator have a combined 40 years of experience academic advising for the College of Liberal Arts. Both Megan and Melissa worked their way up from junior advising positions into the leadership roles they inhibit today; along the way they have supported students from a variety of Departments/majors across the College and are very familiar with the vast academic opportunities and differing pathways that Liberal Arts students take. In Liberal Arts we view academic advising as teaching, as much a part of a student’s development and their college experience as coursework or any other enrichment activity they might participate in. We pride ourselves on guiding students throughout their time as undergraduates, educating them on their academic options, helping them to set and achieve educational goals, assisting them to make the most of every opportunity to enhance their college experience, and supporting them to develop as independent adults and make informed academic decisions.
Ann Huff Stevens
Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the David Bruton, Jr. Regents Chair in Liberal Arts
Ann Huff Stevens is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin and the David Bruton, Jr. Regents Chair in Liberal Arts. She is a widely respected and distinguished scholar of economics who came to UT Austin from The University of California, Davis, where she served in a variety of leadership roles, including chair of the Department of Economics, chair of the Economics Graduate Program, interim dean of the Graduate School of Management, and founding director of the Center for Poverty Research.
Martin Kevorkian
Chair & Professor, Department of English
Martin Kevorkian earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in English from UCLA. He is the author of Color Monitors: The Black Face of Technology in America (Cornell Univ. Press, 2006) and Writing beyond Prophecy: Emerson, Hawthorne, and Melville after the American Renaissance (LSU Press, 2013) as well as articles on Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Ashbery. Kevorkian is currently working on two projects: "The Pequod Meets the Genres: Melville and the Forms of American Fiction," and "Wired and Tired: The Literature of Digital Exhaustion."
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Melissa Ossian, Director of Advising, and Megan Conner, Academic Advising Coordinator
Melissa Ossian, Director of Advising, and Megan Conner, Academic Advising Coordinator, have a combined 40 years of experience academic advising for the College of Liberal Arts. Both Megan and Melissa worked their way up from junior advising positions into the leadership roles they inhibit today; along the way they have supported students from a variety of Departments/majors across the College and are very familiar with the vast academic opportunities and differing pathways that Liberal Arts students take. In Liberal Arts we view academic advising as teaching, as much a part of a student’s development and their college experience as coursework or any other enrichment activity they might participate in. We pride ourselves on guiding students throughout their time as undergraduates, educating them on their academic options, helping them to set and achieve educational goals, assisting them to make the most of every opportunity to enhance their college experience, and supporting them to develop as independent adults and make informed academic decisions.
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Patty Prado
Executive Director of Career Initiatives
Patty Prado serves as the inaugural Executive Director of Career Initiatives in the College of Liberal Arts, focusing on expanding and elevating the career readiness experience for our diverse and talented students. Celebrating more than eighteen years of working at UT Austin, she’s led teams in the Office of Admissions and the School of Nursing. As a certified leadership coach, she has directed leadership development and coaching efforts at the Dell Medical School and continues to coach students through the CoachUT program in the Office of the Dean of Students. With a master’s degree in Human Dimensions of Organizations from the College of Liberal Arts, Patty cares deeply about mindful communication and creating a positive impact on teams and with the longhorn community.
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Steven Hoelscher
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Liberal Arts; Professor; Faculty Curator for Photography, Harry Ransom Center
Born and raised in the Upper Midwest, Professor Hoelscher got to Texas as soon as he could. He joined the Department of American Studies in 2000, after first teaching at LSU and, before that, completing his Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Wisconsin. During 2003-2004, he was Senior Fulbright Professor in the North American Studies Program at the University of Bonn. Today, he splits his time between American Studies and the Harry Ransom Center, where he is the Faculty Curator of Photography.
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Jason Abrevaya
Associate Dean for Graduate Education, Murray S. Johnson Chair in Economics, and Associate Department Chair
Dr. Abrevaya's research has focused on econometric methodology, applied microeconomics, and demography. His work has utilized large-scale birth databases within the United States to research topics including birthweight inequality, the effects of smoking upon birth outcomes, and the practice of gender selection among specific ethnic groups. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. NIH Biosketch
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Jacqueline Evans
Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Associate Professor of Instruction in Psychology
Dr. Evans is a proud product of the College of Liberal Arts, having earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin in 2011 studying the social endocrinology of stress. Dr. Evans then joined the UT Psychology faculty with a focus on health and stress, and developing empirically supported strategies for effective teaching and learning. Dr. Evans has been recognized with several teaching awards, including the prestigious UT Austin President's Associates Teaching Award, and is a four-time nominee for the UT System Regents’ Teaching Excellence Award. Dr. Evans currently leads the College of Liberal Arts Student Affairs team who together serve to support academic advising and success for over 12,000 undergraduate students.
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