Meet the new dean of UK’s honors college who’s expected to bring growth

The University of Kentucky’s Lewis Honors College announced its new dean Thursday after it bounced between temporary and permanent roles for years.

James Joseph “Jim” Buss brings experience in founding and growing enrollment at other honors colleges across the country, including in Kentucky. He’ll start the role July 1.

“The Buss-Wood clan is moving back to the Commonwealth,” he said on Facebook Friday, referencing his wife, Leanne Wood, currently an assistant teaching professor of music where they both work at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

Laura Bryan was the acting dean from 2020 to 2022, then Christian Brady served as dean until he became president of Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, in 2025. Bryan took over again as acting dean until now.

Buss, a history scholar and former professor, founded the honors colleges at Northern Kentucky University and Salisbury University.

Buss will end his role of about three years as dean of the honors college at Ball State. The college brought a record number of 600 first-time students in Fall 2025 under his leadership, according to UK Provost Robert DiPaola and Ball State’s website.

“Ball State will forever hold a special place in our hearts due to our many friends in and around Muncie,” Buss said on Facebook. “I’m particularly grateful to the incredible team at the Honors College for making these past three years special and will miss dear colleagues from across campus who continue to inspire me with their dedication to student success.”

UK’s honors college is focused on student growth too, according to DiPaola.

“As we continue to serve more students across Kentucky, the Lewis Honors College will continue to grow its community of motivated and talented students, faculty and staff,” DiPaola said in a statement. “I am confident Dr. Buss will not only contribute to its growth, but he will help the community thrive in the process.”

The announcement comes a week after Buss attended the Norwegian Nobel Peace Institute in Oslo, Norway, to advance university peace studies.

“We’ve been learning about how to build upon the principles of the (Nobel Peace) prize and laureates to advance peace studies at our home universities as part of a special Nobel Peace Congress that includes 40 university presentations from partners across the US and Europe,” Buss said on Facebook on May 29.

Buss has published books, academic articles and other research in history and honors education. He wrote the book, “Winning the West with Words: Language and Conquest in the Lower Great Lakes,” which explores how white settlers communicated and took over the Midwest, according to its summary on Amazon.

“His scholarly interests center on the intersections of settler memory, Native American history, and public commemoration,” said Americans for the Arts, a national nonprofit that advocates for arts education at federal, state and local levels.

After teaching a course at Oklahoma City University called, “Society, Culture, and Rock and Roll,” Buss took a trip on an educational fellowship to New York City, where he learned how to incorporate theater, music and other art into his classes over a decade ago. He later taught a course titled, “Performing Race and Ethnicity in America.”

“I have realized that the best learning comes through doing,” he said in a 2016 blog post on the Americans for the Arts website.

DiPaola congratulated him on his new deanship and thanked Bryan for her past leadership.

“Dr. Buss helps elevate honors education as a practice and transformative experience for students,” DiPaola said. “And ... I would also like to thank Dr. Laura Bryan for serving as interim dean and helping guide the Lewis Honors College with such dedication to its mission of serving its students.”

The honors college offers advanced instruction for all programs of study with “small, seminar-style classes and co-curricular learning experiences,” UK’s website said.