CLAS Dean's Office
North Classroom Building 5008 K
Richard M. Allen, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, was appointed to serve as Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver in February 2025. He most recently served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Strategic Planning, having served as an Associate Dean in CLAS since 2013 with portfolios that include Research and Creative Activities, Undergraduate Curriculum and Student Affairs, and Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum.
Dr. Allen's portfolio as Senior Associate Dean includes academic and strategic planning broadly, special projects at the campus level, and serving as acting dean when needed. Significant college-level efforts focus on new program development and curriculum management, course enrollment management, instructional budget management, academic program review, inclusive pedagogy and practice, and, recently, artificial intelligence in curriculum and pedagogy. At the campus level, Dr. Allen serves as co-chair for the provost's academic transformation initiative to review and reconsider several aspects of CU Denver's academic operations (e.g., core curriculum, program viability, workload parity) and, as the CLAS liaison to the campus budget allocation review committee, charged with proposing a new campus budget model by April 2025.
Dr. Allen has earned college awards for outstanding effort in Teaching, Research, and Service and was the inaugural recipient of the CU Denver Faculty Award for Outstanding Student Mentoring, in large part to recognize his support for undergraduate students engaged in mentored research experiences. Dr. Allen's research career has progressed from a successful independent psychopharmacology laboratory research phase to work centered on undergraduate student program development and broader institutional transformation projects focused on inclusive excellence and student success, supported by more than $5 million in external funding.
A native of Long Island, New York, Dr. Allen holds degrees in music and psychology from Syracuse University and a doctorate in neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.