Senior Associate Deans

Ran Abramitzky, the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Economics, joined the Stanford faculty in 2005. His research is in economic history and applied microeconomics, with a focus on immigration and income inequality. Abramitzky is a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and former co-editor of the journal Explorations in Economic History. 

His first book, The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World (Princeton University Press, 2018) was awarded the Gyorgi Ranki Biennial Prize for an outstanding book on European Economic History by the Economic History Association. His recent book (with Leah Boustan), Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success (PublicAffairs 2022), was listed on The New Yorker's Best Books of 2022, Forbes' Best Business Books of 2022, and Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2022. His awards include the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship as well as grants from the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. In 2012, he received the Dean’s Awards for Distinguished Teaching.

Gabriella Safran, the Eva Chernov Lokey Professor of Jewish Studies, joined the Stanford faculty in 1998 and served as the first chair of the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages. Safran also served as president of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. She is a professor of Slavic languages and literatures and teaches and writes on Russian literature, Yiddish literature, and folklore.

She has written on Russian, Polish, Yiddish, and French literatures and cultures. She is the author of Wandering Soul: The Dybbuk's Creator, S. An-sky (Harvard, 2010), and her most recent monograph is Recording Russia: Trying to Listen in the Nineteenth Century (Cornell, 2022). She is now researching the intersections of eldercare and migration as depicted in American Yiddish literature. She is the John and Lydia Pearce Mitchell University Fellow in Undergraduate Education.

Mary Beth Mudgett, the Susan B. Ford Professor, received her doctorate in biochemistry from UCLA and has been a professor in Stanford's Department of Biology since 2002. Her research group studies plant-pathogen interactions and focuses on the biochemical mechanisms that pathogens use to manipulate the plant immune system, resulting in disease outbreaks.

From 2019-22, Mudgett was the senior associate dean for education initiatives in H&S, leading the effort to reshape introductory science and math courses to better support students with different levels of preparation for success in STEM majors. During the pandemic, she was co-chair of Stanford’s Academic Continuity Group, helping the university navigate the thicket of teaching challenges posed by COVID. She is the Stanford Friends University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and, in 2017, she received the Dean’s Awards for Distinguished Teaching. From 2023-24, Mudgett was chair of the University Faculty Senate.

Steve Olson, senior associate dean for finance and administration, oversees a range of core operational functions within the Dean's Office, including finance, human resources, IT, facilities, sponsored research administration, and institutional research and planning. He works in partnership with the school's many department and program administrative leaders in support of their academic missions, and he represents the School of Humanities and Sciences on a number of university committees. Prior to coming to H&S, Steve served in a similar role at the Graduate School of Education and before that as the university's associate director of budget policy and planning in the Office of the President and Provost.