Thomas Donley, MA ’85
Thomas Donley has been named interim dean of DePaul University's Driehaus College of Business.
Thomas Donley, a 1985 graduate of UIC, has been named interim dean of DePaul University's Driehaus College of Business. He will step into the role on July 1. Prior to his appointment, Donley, a professor of economics, held a series of administrative roles in which he helped shape the business college's academic programs and operations, as well as DePaul's faculty governance.
As an associate dean for Driehaus since 2018, Donley oversees the college's academic operations and manages its international program strategy, which includes graduate business programs in Bahrain and more than a dozen international business study abroad seminars annually. In his previous role as special assistant to the dean, he assessed academic unit performance to position the college for success.
Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Donley joined DePaul's faculty in 1990 and was promoted to professor of economics in 2002. He served from 2007 to 2016 as chair of the Department of Economics, where he established the Master of Science in Economics & Policy Analysis and its innovative fellowship program in Washington, D.C. DePaul presented Donley with its Spirit of DePaul Award in 2015.
Donley served as president of the DePaul Faculty Council from 2004 to 2006. In this role, he updated the council's faculty representation model and initiated a revision of the Faculty Handbook.
Donley's research expertise is in applied microeconomics and econometrics, with a focus on labor markets and wage inequality. He teaches courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics and public economics, and has received college teaching excellence awards.
He earned a doctorate and Master of Science in economics from the UW, where his dissertation examined family income inequality. Donley also holds a Master of Arts in economics from UIC and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.