Office of the Deans
kelly payne, Senior Associate Dean (she/her)
Kelly M. Payne, Ph.D., serves as the Senior Associate Dean, a role in which she consults with senior staff, responds to high-level advising issues, and manages the Office of the Deans. Dean Payne advises the Laurel Honor Society and the Hai Timiai Senior Honor Society and co-leads the Laurel Connections Program that pairs honor society students with first-year students. She is a proud first-generation college graduate and is the first in her extended family to earn a doctorate. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a graduate certificate in Nineteenth Century Studies, and a B.A. in English from Saint Mary’s College (Notre Dame, Indiana). In addition to her duties as a dean, Dean Payne has experience teaching first-year seminars in the humanities, surveys of American and African American literature, senior-level courses, and she has led a study abroad course in Belgium and the Netherlands on political themes in the literature of the low countries. She has assumed various faculty and administrative roles in her 20+ years in higher education. Dean Payne is an active member of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association and has served as chair of their Emerging Scholars Committee and on the Article Prize Committee. She has given presentations and webinars through the National Academic Advising Association on advising, ethics, and the influence of the writer and theorist bell hooks. Dean Payne has published on nineteenth century reform literature, academic advising in the U.S. and the Civil Rights Movement, and the significance of personal narratives in the education of first-generation college students.
david mapstone '93, P'21, Associate Dean (he/him)
David Mapstone has mentored and advised HWS students as a Dean for almost 25 years. He develops strong individual relationships with students as well as manages a variety of class-wide programs in his approach to helping students make a successful transition to Hobart and William Smith. Dean Mapstone serves as the coordinator for transfer student advising and support; directs spOArk, an outdoor education program for entering FY students; and leads a wildly successful adventure-education, summer study abroad program in Wales. Dean Mapstone serves as the advisor to the Druid Society and Chimera Orange Key Society. He is engaged in research on college athletics, student-athlete identity, and youth sport culture. Dean Mapstone earned his B.A. in Psychology from Hobart College, an M.S. in Education from the University of Rochester, and an M.S. in Cultural Foundation of Education at Syracuse University. He lives at Mapleton Farm, a small sustainable farm just east of Geneva, with his wife, Kara (William Smith '92) and his three children.
amy green, Associate Dean (she/her)
Amy H. Green, Ph.D., has been working in higher education for over 30 years, including 25+ years in faculty/instructional roles and 12+ years in advising. In the Office of the Deans, she enjoys mentoring students, centering their experiences, and building one-on-one relationships with them. Dean Green co-advises the Laurel Honor Society and the Hai Timiai Senior Honor Society and co-leads the Laurel Connections Program. She is also an active member of the Writing and Rhetoric Department and enjoys teaching and developing courses that feature language as social action, such as her first-year seminar, “Writing and Resistance,” and electives like “Literate Lives,” “Writing and the Culture of Reading,” and “Suffrage and Citizenship in American Discourse,” a course that grew out of her participation in an NEH Summer Seminar on "Writing & Democracy” at Cornell University. Dean Green holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in English from Clarion University, and a Ph.D. in American Literature from West Virginia University. Her research interests include 19th-century American women’s literature and the history of activism and resistance in America.
KELVIN D. CLARK, ASSISTANT DEAN (he/him)
Kelvin D. Clark joined the Office of the Deans in July 2025. Dean Clark’s professional experiences at colleges and universities over his 15-year career include academic advising, success coaching, student mentorship, leadership, and student programming. As a student-centered advocate, his work is guided by the words of Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better do, do better.” As a first-generation undergraduate, Dean Clark earned magna cum laude honors with a major in History and a minor in Psychology from North Carolina Wesleyan College and a Master’s degree in Liberal Studies with a graduate certificate in African and African American Studies from Duke University. Currently, he is working on a Doctor of Education in Higher Education and Student Affairs at the Lewis & Clark College of Education and Counseling. His research focuses on the possibilities for community college students who transfer to liberal arts colleges. In addition to his administrative roles, Dean Clark loves teaching, and for the last 14 years, he has served as an adjunct professor teaching Student (Identity) Development Theory on the graduate level along with a host of courses in World, U.S., and African American history, leadership, academic study skills, and first-year seminars at the undergraduate level. Dean Clark is a self-taught musician (acoustic and electric guitar, piano, and bass), avid binge-watcher, and novice nature lover. He can never get enough of Puzzles and Chaos.
JULIA SOLLENNE, ASSISTANT TO THE DEANS (she/her)
Julia Sollenne is a native of Geneva, New York and a proud 2019 graduate of St. John Fisher University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and an Interdisciplinary Minor concentrated in Education and Psychology. After working in the Geneva City School District for several years, she joined the Hobart and William Smith community, spending two years in the Office of Admissions working primarily on domestic recruitment covering various northeastern and southern states. She is excited to now transition into a new role in the Office of the Deans supporting the Deans and HWS students. Outside of work, Julia enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends, cooking new recipes, and traveling to East Coast beaches whenever she gets the chance.