Gregory Dunaway, Ph.D.

Gregory Dunaway is an award-winning educator and sociologist who served as dean of West Virginia University's Eberly College of Arts and Sciences from 2022 to 2026. Before leading the Eberly College, he served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State University, where he spent 25 years of his career. Prior to his appointment as dean in 2013, he was associate dean for academic and student affairs (2011–2012), department head of sociology (2008–2011), and the Thomas Bailey Professor of Sociology. He also served as a Research Fellow at Mississippi State's Social Science Research Center.

His research interests include examining social factors associated with crime and delinquency; trends, inequality and crime and justice; and criminal justice policy. He has conducted research on a number of justice programs in Mississippi, including performing an evaluation of Mississippi’s Drug Court Program, a survey of Mississippi’s Juvenile Detention Facilities and a study on disproportionate minority contact within the Mississippi juvenile justice system. Dunaway has won both teaching and administrative service awards at Mississippi State. He is the immediate past president of the Southern Criminal Justice Association. He earned his B.A. from Loyola University Maryland (1982) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Cincinnati (1988, 1991).