Dr. Hukowicz was named Dean of the School of Continuing Education and Dean of Student Success in 2021. She currently serves as Dean of Student Success and Professor of Education. Previously, she served as Dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education, Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs, Interim Dean of Enrollment Services, and Chair of the Education Division at Elms College, as well as Administrator of Special Education in the public schools. Dr. Hukowicz holds the rank of Full Professor in Education and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in children’s reading and writing for nearly three decades. She taught in the Education Division for 25 years and served as Chair for 13 years. For ten years, she participated in the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University, NYC, with a focus on children’s writing and the writing workshop process.
Dr. Hukowicz was an Educational Consultant for Houghton Mifflin, School Division, Northeast Region from Maine to Virginia, presenting literacy and literacy coaching in-service programs and institutes for classroom teachers, instructional specialists, and administrators. In addition, she also worked as a literacy consultant for ten years to elementary, middle, and secondary school faculties in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Jersey. Dr. Hukowicz successfully wrote over 20 private and public grant proposals. She designed and co-directed study tours to Ireland with accommodations at Trinity College in Dublin and the University of Galway.
Dr. Hukowicz chaired multiple Master of Arts in Teaching thesis committees, supervised doctoral interns, and served as a dissertation committee member at Elms College and other colleges and universities in Massachusetts while serving as College Supervisor for the Graduate Program in Higher Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College. She was an evaluator for the Massachusetts Department of Education (DESE) Program Approval Visiting Teams at several colleges and universities, including the Harvard Graduate School of Education, UMass Boston, and UMass Lowell, and served as Program Approval Chair at institutions including Mount Holyoke College, Stonehill College, and Endicott College.
She developed multiple partnership and degree programs including: the Master of Arts in Teaching degree; the Teacher Education Partnership for which Dr. Hukowicz successfully obtained three-year funding; the Chicopee Elms Partnership between Elms College and the Chicopee Public Schools; the Building Careers program for early childhood educators; the Elms College and Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield Partnership Agreement establishing a Lay Ministry office on the Elms campus; and more than twenty off campus and online degree completion programs in eight disciplines at six community colleges in Massachusetts and Connecticut in collaboration with Elms and community college faculty and staff.
Dr. Hukowicz served in different roles on multiple faculty committees including: Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees; co-chair, NEASC Sub-committees on Students and Governance; member of Strategic Planning Committees on Finance and Academics; member of search committees (President, Vice President of Finance and Administration, and Assistant to the Academic Dean); chair of search committees for Director of IT, Marketing Specialist, and Associate Dean for Graduate Program Development); member, Faculty and Academic Standards (FAST) Committee; member and co-chair, Planning Council; member and secretary, Student Faculty Senate; member, Curriculum Committee; member, Tenure and Promotion Committee; member, Affirmative Action Committee; member of Academic Restructuring Committee; and, member of multiple ad hoc committees for new programs at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.
For more than two decades, she served as moderator of the Alpha Kappa Chapter of Delta Epsilon Sigma, a national honor society for students, alumni, and faculty of colleges and universities with a Catholic tradition. Dr. Hukowicz served as a member of the Lay Ministry Board and the Catholic Schools Board for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, MA, for twelve years and multiple community boards, including Quota International of Springfield, American Cancer Society of Hampshire County, and currently serves as a board member of Meghan’s Light. She is an advocate for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and their families at the state and national levels, and collaborated annually in introducing resolutions to raise CF awareness on the floor of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the MA Senate from 2021 to 2025.