Dr. Christopher M. Jones is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), a position that he has held since June 2026. In this role, he serves as the chief executive and administrative officer of GVSU’s largest and most intellectually rich college. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) encompasses twenty-six academic units across the humanities, social sciences, natural and mathematical sciences, visual and performing arts, and movement sciences. It also includes the Annis Water Resources Institute, the Statewide Autism Resources Center, and the CLAS Academic Advising Center.

Before coming to GVSU, Chris served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Executive Director for Academic Partnerships, Vice President for Strategy and Innovation, and Interim Provost at Bradley University. He also served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Le Moyne College and Associate Vice Provost for University Honors at Northern Illinois University (NIU). Chris began his administrative service at the unit level, serving as Chair, Assistant Chair, and Director of Undergraduate Studies of NIU’s Department of Political Science.

Chris is a tenured professor and international relations specialist within GVSU’s Department of Political Science. His teaching and research specialties are U.S. foreign policy and national security policy with an emphasis on the domestic determinants of such policies. Chris’s 30-plus articles, chapters, and books; more than 30 scholarly papers; and 40 public presentations examine a range of subjects, including bureaucratic politics, arms control, diplomacy, export control policy, leadership accountability, weapons procurement, intelligence, NATO enlargement, organizational change within the foreign policy bureaucracy, and the current and future state of U.S. foreign policy.

Chris’s overseas experience includes a NATO and EU-focused Atlantic Council Fellowship, studying counterterrorism in the Middle East, and serving as a member of an invited U.S. security studies delegation to Taiwan. Chris has taught U.S.-British relations multiple times as part of study abroad programs. He is a two-term, past president of the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of the International Studies Association. The section has a membership of over eight hundred foreign policy scholars worldwide.

Chris is an accomplished teacher. At NIU, he was a recipient of the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the University Honors Great Professor Award, and the Outstanding International Educator Award. In 2013, he was named a Presidential Teaching Professor, NIU’s most distinguished teaching honor. Chris has been recognized for teaching excellence by the American Political Science Association, the National Political Science Honor Society, and student organizations. In 2013, he received a national faculty award for excellence in international education from Phi Beta Delta: The Honor Society for International Scholars.

Chris earned his B.A. and M.A. in Political Science at Binghamton University, State University of New York where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from The Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Chris has completed Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Higher Education. He began his academic career at Whittier College as a visiting faculty member.