• Organization Chart
• College Officers and Deans

  • Andrew T. Hsu
  • Frances C. Welch
  • Alicia D. Caudill
  • Christopher R. Tobin
  • Jimmie Foster Jr.
  • Valerie B. Morris
  • Alan T. Shao
  • H. Gibbs Knotts
  • Sebastian van Delden
  • Trisha H. Folds-Bennett
  • Godfrey A. Gibbison
  • Elizabeth W. Kassebaum
  • Timothy Johnson
• Office of Institutional Events
• Committee on Commencement Speakers and Honorary Degree Recipients

Office Address
Honors College
10 Green Way
Charleston, SC 29424

Phone: 843.953.7154
E-mail: foldsbennettt@cofc.edu

Download Bio

Trisha Folds-Bennett is the dean of the Honors College at the College of Charleston and an associate professor of psychology. From June 2006 to January 2013, she served as the associate dean of the Honors College. In that role, she established the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards and the William Aiken Fellows Society in an effort to engage the top student scholars. She took a brief hiatus from her academic career from January 2004 through June 2006 to serve as director of programs, products and services at Darkness to Light, a nonprofit focused on the prevention of child sexual abuse. While there, she oversaw the development and implementation of a sexual abuse prevention curriculum that is now used internationally. Before her time at Darkness to Light, she had a 14-year career as a faculty member in the College’s Department of Psychology. During that time, she was elected the first female speaker of the faculty and served in that role for three years.

Folds-Bennett earned her bachelor and master’s in psychology from Wake Forest University and her doctoral degree in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research is focused on the factors that contribute to children’s cognitive and moral development, and she has published several articles and book chapters in the area. She is also active in the National Collegiate Honors Society, the Council on Undergraduate Research, the National Association of Fellowship Advisors and the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, regularly publishing and presenting papers for these professional organizations.

Folds-Bennett has served on the Research Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of the Lowcountry Children’s Center, a children’s advocacy center in Charleston. She also chaired the research working group of the National Coalition to Prevent Child Sexual Exploitation and has served on several boards in her community.

Education

1993: Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1986: M.A. in Psychology, Wake Forest University
1984: B.A. in Psychology, Wake Forest University

Career Highlights

2013–Present: Dean, Honors College
2009–Present: Director, Undergraduate Research and Creative Actitives Program
2006–2013: Associate Dean, Honors College Coordinator of Nationally Competitive Awards
2006–2013: Coordinator, Nationally Competitive Awards
2004–2006: Director, Programs, Products and Services, Darkness to Light
1998–2004: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
1998–2001: Speaker of the Faculty, Faculty Senate
1998–2001: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
1990–1993: Visiting Instructor, Department of Psychology

Honors and Achievements

2012: Inducted Member, Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society
2011: Paul Harris Service Award, Rotary Club International
2007: Inducted Member, Phi Eta Sigma Honors Society
1996: Distinguished Advising Award, College of Charleston
1996: NEH/NSF Summer Fellowship, Institute on Human Nature, Dartmouth University
1991: Inducted Member, Psi Chi, Psychology Honors Society