About a month ago, President Bell asked Dr. Steven Hood to step into the Division of Student Life’s top leadership role as interim vice president. Dr. Hood is no stranger to the division – he’s been around for more than a decade, and he’s excited to continue the progress that’s been made in recent years. His colleagues in the division already know that in addition to innovative solutions to our problems, he’s always ready with a dad joke to brighten our day, but we wanted to take some time to properly introduce him to the rest of the campus community!
Alabama Born
An Alabama native, Dr. Hood grew up in the Birmingham area, as well as Sumter County. He earned his business degree from Livingston University (now the University of West Alabama), where he served as his fraternity’s president and treasurer, and was involved in many other areas of campus life. It was during this time that he met his wife, Tiffani. The college sweethearts have been married for 26 years.
After earning his bachelor’s degree and working for a few years in private industry, Dr. Hood and Tiffani welcomed their first baby. Shortly after she was born, Dr. Hood pivoted his career. “I wanted to make sure my next job was something I would enjoy. I had such fond memories of working in Housing in undergrad, so I applied to be a Residential Life area coordinator at Samford University – and that really began the rest of my career in higher education and student affairs roles,” he said.
Building on the Housing Foundation
While working as an area coordinator, Dr. Hood completed his master’s in public administration from Troy University, and he and Tiffani welcomed their second daughter. By the time their third daughter was born in 2003, they had relocated so he could serve as director of Housing and Residential Life at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). UTC recognized the value of his savvy business sense and servant leadership, so they promoted him to assistant vice chancellor for Student Housing. At UTC he also earned the “Dr.” by completing his Ed.D. in learning and leadership.
Hitting His Stride at UA
Although he loved UTC and his family loved Chattanooga, Dr. Hood always had an interest in serving at a large, research institution. And as a lifetime Crimson Tide fan, UA was a career destination he had dreamed of. In 2011, Dr. Hood joined the Bama family as executive director of Housing and Residential Communities. In the last decade, he has served as interim director of the Community Service Center, an adjunct instructor, interim vice president of Student Affairs, interim executive director of the Career Center, interim executive director of the Student Health Center & Pharmacy, senior associate vice president for Student Life – and now, as interim vice president for Student Life. In short, Dr. Hood has just about done it all here at the Capstone!
I am very excited to continue the good work of Student Life,” Dr. Hood said. “I am proud of the accomplishments we have made in my time here and look forward to seeing the continued success of the division. Because of the great people we have on our team, I’m confident that our greatest days are still ahead.
Dr. Hood