D’Alleva is an accomplished academic leader who has focused on advancing student success and has engaged in multidisciplinary and collaborative efforts to expand UConn’s work in AI and quantum technologies, partner with the state’s tribal nations, and expand academic offerings at the university’s four regional campuses. D’Alleva has led UConn’s academic enterprise, including strategic planning, budgetary management, faculty development and curriculum innovation across the university’s 14 schools and colleges. She has lead transformative initiatives that support student success, faculty excellence and institutional impact.
The first woman to serve as provost in UConn’s history, D’Alleva had previously served as dean of the School of Fine Arts since 2015 and first joined the UConn faculty as a joint appointment to Art History and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies in 1999. She received her B.A. in Art History from Harvard University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University with a graduate certificate in feminist theory.
Holistic student success has been one of D’Alleva’s priorities at Connecticut. She established a vice provost for student success to enhance this work and reorganized cultural centers and offices such as the Dean of Students, the Center for Students with Disabilities and Student Activities to better connect these initiatives with academics. Additionally, D’Alleva established a partnership with a food share program to establish food pantries on all seven UConn campuses.
During her time as the dean of the School of Fine Arts, D’Alleva led a five-fold increase in research funding and founded the Krenicki Arts and Engineering Institute, which strives to offer classes in areas such as entertainment engineering and industrial design and allows for new pathways of creativity and breakthroughs in research and scholarship. Additionally, she created a research cluster in arts and human rights and established a School of Fine Arts Advisory Board and a Recent Alumni Council to better connect faculty and students with graduates.
Prior to her arrival at UConn, D’Alleva completed postdoctoral fellowships at Australian National University and through the Getty Foundation. She received additional research funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the College Art Association. Her books Fundamentals of Art History (3rd ed., 2021) and Methods and Theories of Art History (3rd ed., 2021) have been published in multiple languages worldwide.
D’Alleva has been actively engaged with organizations including the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, the National Association of College and University Business Offices, the College Art Association of America and programs such as academic leadership development through the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.