Simone Pilon Named Dean of Academic Affairs at Berklee Valencia

May 5, 2020

Photo by Dave Green

Simone Pilon, chair of the Liberal Arts Department at Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, has been appointed Dean of Academic Affairs at Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain. Prior to her current position at Berklee, Pilon worked for more than a decade as a professor of French and director of International Studies at Franklin College in Indiana.

“It is with great excitement that we welcome Simone to the Berklee Valencia team,” said María M. Iturriaga, executive director at the Valencia campus. “Simone’s background in higher education as both an administrator and a faculty member, her direction of the liberal arts and sciences program at Berklee’s Boston campus, her experience in study abroad, international partnerships, and in creating innovative student-centered initiatives, and her strong strategic and operational skills made her the ideal candidate for this position.”

As a faculty member, Pilon has taught French language and literature as well as interdisciplinary and study abroad courses. As director of international studies at Franklin, she led campus internationalization efforts, including developing partnerships and overseeing study abroad programs.

Pilon has been a Fulbright-Hays scholar to Morocco and Tunisia. She has published in international journals, and has presented at national and international conferences. She has served as a technical reviewer for the series of Cliffs Notes, Dummies, and Everything books, and has published a student edition of Louis Hémon's novel Maria Chapdelaine, with Molière and Company. She holds a Ph.D. in Québécois literature from Université Laval and an M.A. in French literature from McGill University. Pilon will transition to her new post in Valencia during the summer 2020 semester.