Henderson Named Honors College Director

Dr. Kevin Henderson will become director on Wednesday, July 1, bringing experience from his roles as associate director of the Honors College and founding coordinator of the Office of Student Fellowships. He succeeds Dr. Kathleen Roberts.
 
Since arriving at Duquesne in 2023, Henderson has engaged more than 500 students through advising and application support, and has supported students earning Goldwater, Fulbright, Critical Language Scholarship and Gilman awards. He also chairs the faculty advisory committee for the Honors College Fellowship Program and teaches in the Honors College.
 
“Above all, I want to deepen the tangible value that the Honors College already offers: substantive experiences, resources and relationships that shape our students’ undergraduate years and the paths they pursue afterward,” said Henderson. “That means partnering with faculty from across Duquesne's schools to teach and mentor in the Honors College, strengthening our research and fellowship infrastructure, and making the Honors College an experience our students carry with them long after they leave Duquesne.”
 
Henderson holds a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education from Columbia University. His research explores how ideas about education emerge, develop into narratives and influence policy and institutional life worldwide. Henderson focuses on the role of non-state actors in global education governance and how future-focused visions are used to justify reform. 
 
A former editor-in-chief of Current Issues in Comparative Education, Henderson is a founder of the Southeast Asia Special Interest Group of the Comparative and International Education Society. He also serves National Association of Fellowships Advisors Board of Directors and its Finance and Technology and Publications Committees. Henderson also reviews applications for the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship and the Henry Luce Foundation.
 
Previously, Henderson spent eight years at the United Board, an international NGO based in New York City and Hong Kong, most recently as program director leading digital education initiatives with particular focus on Hong Kong, Japan, India and the Philippines. 
 
“Even in three years, Kevin has supercharged Duquesne’s presence in elite fellowship competitions and revolutionized several existing Honors College protocols. I have no doubt he will take the program to lofty heights,” said Roberts. “Kevin fits right in with our honors students. Like them, he is blessed with academic talents combined with creative interests. He's an outstanding role model to guide them in interdisciplinary thinking that's ambitious and unconventional.”
 
Henderson is ready to embrace this new role and walk alongside students as they pursue bigger goals.
 
“There is something special here—the seriousness our students bring to ideas, the way they hold one another to high standards while supporting each other and the Spiritan tradition that calls us toward something larger than individual achievement,” said Henderson. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to build on what the Honors College has become over the past 40 years and to broaden what an honors education can mean at Duquesne.”