Naomi Yavneh Klos, Ph.D. is Dean of the Honors College at the University of New Mexico, a position she assumed on July 1, 2026. A nationally recognized academic leader, scholar, and public humanist, she is known for building high-impact undergraduate programs that integrate rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, and civic engagement at scale.
Prior to her appointment at UNM, Dr. Yavneh Klos held the Reverend Emmett M. Bienvenu, SJ, Distinguished Chair in Humanities and served as Professor of Languages and Cultures at Loyola University New Orleans. From 2011 to 2018, she directed Loyola’s University Honors Program, leading a comprehensive curricular redesign that emphasized interdisciplinary inquiry, undergraduate research, and community-engaged learning. Her work in honors education has had national and international influence, including her service as President of the National Collegiate Honors Council, where she advanced initiatives focused on access, equity, and inclusive excellence across higher education.
Dr. Yavneh Klos earned her A.B. from Princeton University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in Comparative Literature. Her scholarship centers on gender, spirituality, and cultural memory, with extensive publications on Renaissance Italy and early modern women’s studies. She is co-editor of three award-winning essay collections and is completing Anne Frank Anew, a book that reexamines Anne Frank’s legacy to illuminate both Holocaust history and the contemporary rise of antisemitism.
A leader in undergraduate research infrastructure, Dr. Yavneh Klos served as founding director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean of the Honors College at the University of South Florida, and as founding chair of the Arts and Humanities Division of the Council of Undergraduate Research. Her leadership has consistently strengthened student retention, graduation outcomes, and faculty-student collaboration.
She is also the creator and director of the Loyola Anne Frank Project, developed in partnership with the Anne Frank House and the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina. Through this initiative, university and middle school students serve as docents for the international traveling exhibit Anne Frank: A History for Today, fostering sustained dialogue on prejudice, intolerance, and civic responsibility. Her public humanities collaborations include Yad Vashem, the National WWII Museum, the Louisiana Philharmonic, and national exhibitions at the Louisiana State Capitol and the Democratic National Convention.
