Elizabeth Fox is the new director of Duke's Academic Advising Center.

DURHAM, N.C. - Elizabeth Fox, the associate dean of undergraduate advising and research at Stanford University, will become the new director of the Academic Advising Center for Duke's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, school officials announced on Monday. Fox, who earned a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from Duke in 1998, will start her new post in October.

Fox also will serve as associate dean of Trinity College, which enrolls more than 80 percent of Duke's undergraduates.

Her job responsibilities will include directing the Academic Advising Center, which coordinates advising activities and monitors the academic progress of Trinity College students who have yet to choose a major. As associate dean of Trinity College, she will help administer and interpret academic policies for undergraduate students and faculty.

"Elizabeth Fox will bring diverse experiences, high energy, and dynamic leadership to the college," said Lee Baker, Trinity College's dean of academic affairs. "Her experience as associate dean at Stanford included bringing together people and projects at the intersection of academic affairs, undergraduate research, student affairs and the curriculum. She will be able to provide Duke with fresh ideas and new perspectives on advising students to enhance and build upon the tradition of excellence in advising that we have worked so hard to develop at Duke."

Fox has 12 years of experience in higher education, including seven devoted to undergraduate advising. Before joining Stanford in 2007, Fox held academic advising positions at the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also served Princeton University as a research fellow in ecology and evolutionary biology and as a lecturer in ecology and evolutionary biology and the Program for the Study of Women and Gender.

Fox's research focused on the behavior and intelligence of wild Sumatran orangutans, and she worked in Indonesia as a conservation zoologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

"Duke is a multi-faceted intellectual community, and Duke undergraduates benefit from the mentorship of faculty, the integration of curricular and co-curricular opportunities and conversations with fellow students," Fox said. "Each and every person at Duke plays a critical role in creating and sustaining the vibrancy of the Duke community, and I am thrilled to return to the place that fostered my development as a scholar."

Fox earned a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology from Columbia University in 1988 and a master's degree in education from Lesley University in 1990.