Debra Schleef (dschleef)

Associate Provost for Institutional Analysis and Effectiveness and Professor of Sociology

Academic Degrees

B.A., Indiana University at Indianapolis; M.A., Ph.D., Northwestern University

Debra Jo Schleef, Associate Provost for Institutional Analysis and Effectiveness and Professor of Sociology, earned a Ph.D. (1997) and an M.A. (1991) in sociology from Northwestern University, and a B.A. (1988) in sociology from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, where she graduated summa cum laude. Her recent research focuses on intentional communities, particularly the continuum of community that ranges from cooperative gardens and enterprises to income-sharing, egalitarian communes. Schleef is the author of Managing Elites: Professional Socialization in Law and Business School (2006), and the co-author, with H.B. Cavalcanti, of Latinos in Dixie: Class and Assimilation in Richmond, Virginia (2009).

She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the Southern Sociological Association. She is the recipient of two Mary Washington Faculty Development Grants and a Jepson Fellowship, and most recently, the J. Christopher Bill Outstanding Faculty Service Award. Dr. Schleef is an authoritative source on the sociology of law, occupations and professions, elites, professional education and socialization, Latino assimilation in the American South, and intentional communities.

Debra Schleef in the News

NESSIE is Coming!

The National Survey of Student Engagement will seeking feedback from First Years and Seniors starting Feb. 22nd. NSSE annually collects information at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities about students' participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development. Students should check their emails for Read more…

UMW Administration, Faculty & Staff Featured in FLS Article on Remote Work

Members of the UMW community, including Associate Provost for Institutional Analysis and Effectiveness Debra Schleef, Executive Director of Human Resources Beth Williams, Associate Payroll Manager Leslie Petrey and Provost Nina Mikhalevsky were interviewed for a recent article in The Free Lance-Star: "Outbreak sends many Fredericksburg area residents home to work." Debra Read more…

Schleef Conducts Fieldwork in Germany

Debra Schleef, professor of sociology, conducted field research on several intentional communities in Germany in July, and gave a lecture in German on issues that are of concern to communes and ecovillages in the U.S. to an audience at Kommune Niederkaufungen. [...] The post Schleef Conducts Fieldwork in Germany appeared first Read more…
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