Appointed interim president by the Winthrop University Board of Trustees on January
31, 2020, George W. Hynd has had a distinguished administrative career in higher education
serving at several national and regional institutions and as a distinguished research
professor at the University of Georgia.
Before his appointment at Winthrop, Hynd served as the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and interim provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. While at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Hynd worked to develop career and professional development maps for the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences. As interim provost, Hynd worked successfully with the University of Tennessee System in instituting post-tenure review for all faculty.
Prior to his work at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Hynd served as president at Oakland University in Michigan. Oakland University is a public research university with an enrollment of 20,000 students. At Oakland, Hynd led a transformative campus-wide master planning process which then informed the strategic planning process. During his tenure at Oakland University, a new $78 million, 750-bed student residence was approved and constructed, as well as a $46 million renovation of the Oakland Student Center. Notably, Hynd established a significant partnership with the City of Pontiac, a partnership that flourished and continues today. Additionally, the School of Medicine at Oakland University graduated its first medical class and a new five-year contract was signed with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) during Hynd’s term as president.
Prior to assuming the presidency at Oakland University, Hynd served as provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at the College of Charleston. During his tenure at the College of Charleston, Hynd was instrumental in facilitating the deans in developing their college-level strategic fund-raising priorities linked to the university’s comprehensive campaign. He also led the effort to develop a number of new academic programs including creating a major in African-American Studies. Other administrative experiences include being a dean of the College of Education at Purdue University and dean and senior vice provost of the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University.
Hynd has received significant recognition for his community engagement work in his various leadership positions. In addition to receiving a Distinguished Hoosier Award in Indiana from then Governor Mitch Daniels, Hynd received a special tribute from the Michigan State Legislature and community engagement leadership awards from the cities of Auburn Hills, Pontiac and Rochester, Michigan.
Professionally, Hynd is a clinical child neuropsychologist who has maintained a career-long interest in the genetic and neurobiological factors that influence fetal brain development in ways that put children at risk for later emergence of learning, behavioral and psychiatric problems. After teaching elementary school in Los Angeles, working as a school psychologist in Guam and receiving his doctorate, Hynd completed post-doctoral training in clinical neuropsychology at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. He was then awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in child neuropsychology to the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, where he later received an honorary doctorate for his research on neurodevelopmental variation in the brains of children with developmental dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Over his academic career, Hynd has authored, coauthored and edited 11 books; authored 57 book chapters; and published over 160 refereed journal articles, most of which focus on important theoretical or clinical issues in the areas of clinical child neuropsychology. To support his research, Hynd received more than $1.25 million in external funding, mostly from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). As a distinguished research professor at the University of Georgia, Hynd directed the Center for Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology and supervised and graduated 69 Ph.D. students.
Hynd has received numerous national and international awards and recognitions for his research. He is a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN). He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from Pepperdine University, a master’s of educational administration from the University of Guam and his doctorate in psychology from the University of Northern Colorado.
Hynd is married to Alison Hynd, who also is a child neuropsychologist, and they have two daughters. Erin is in medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina, while Elise is a recent graduate from the University of Georgia and lives in Athens, Georgia. Hynd also has two children from a previous marriage: April, who lives in Hawaii; and Brian, who lives in Oregon. Read more about Hynd’s family.
