{"id":18753,"date":"2025-10-23T15:27:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=18753"},"modified":"2025-10-23T15:27:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:27:55","slug":"a-new-dean-dr-adrienne-bey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2025\/10\/23\/a-new-dean-dr-adrienne-bey\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Dean: Dr. Adrienne Bey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Soon after she was appointed dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences<\/a> (COSBS) last April, Dr. Adrienne Bey<\/strong> shared what she called \u201cmy story\u201d in her first staff meeting with her COSBS colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have always had a passion for helping people,\u201d she began. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting how my journey and all of my experiences have led me to where I am now. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Dr. Bey\u2019s CV is a testament to her qualifications for the job. Her career, as she said in that initial meeting, had touched on virtually everything \u201cbeing taught in the college  \u2014 from corrections\/criminal justice, prevention\/intervention\/or treatment, to human services administration and clinical mental health counseling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for legal studies, she pointed out that one of her daughters had graduated from Howard University School of Law and is a law clerk in Washington for a contractor with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), while her other daughter, who has an M.S. in Administration of Human Services<\/a> from WilmU and was an Audrey K. Doberstein Leadership Award recipient, is DEI administrator for the Delaware DOJ.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She ended the meeting with a light-hearted cautionary note: \u201cOne thing about me is that if you spend enough time with me, I will start treating you like family. Some people embrace this and some people may not be comfortable with it. I get it. Please call me out if I get too comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her title has the ring of inevitability about it, Dr. Bey says the path her career took wasn\u2019t the result of \u201ca specific plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOpportunities arose,\u201d she says, \u201cand I went ahead and took advantage of those opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBloom where you\u2019re planted,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were hints early on that she had an aptitude for connecting with people. At William Penn High School in New Castle, she was voted the senior class superlative \u201cmost talkative,\u201d a designation that surprised her a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, there were about 400 people in my class,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI thought it was funny. Looking back at it now, I guess I\u2019ve had it all my life \u2014 the gift of gab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She played varsity basketball and was a student council officer. She also had perfect attendance throughout high school, a sure sign that she enjoyed being around people, especially her classmates. \u201cI was very high on work hard, play hard,\u201d she says. \u201cI am an only child, and that was my peer group, my community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In choosing a possible career, Dr. Bey says she felt a calling \u201cto work with children and families, especially children,\u201d and she considered becom-ing a child psychiatrist, but she wasn\u2019t keen on committing to four years of medical school. So she enrolled as a Psychology major at Temple University. She spent two years there, then transferred to the more affordable University of Delaware for her last two years, graduating in 1990.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, her career has confirmed that she does indeed have \u201ca passion for helping people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Bey spent many years in human services and mental health counseling, mostly working with vulnerable populations. She started as a mental health associate at MeadowWood Behavioral Health Hospital in New Castle, then moved on to Child Protective Services for the State of Delaware, working the second shift and handling emergency situations alongside the New Castle County Police.<\/p>\n\n\n