Academic Affairs

Warren von Eschenbach

Warren von Eschenbach, PhD is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of North Texas System where he oversees academic matters across the enterprise, and Interim President, UNT Dallas (effective April 1, 2024). His primary roles and responsibilities include coordinating and implementing system-wide academic policies, standards, and initiatives and collaborating with individual campuses to ensure consistency in curriculum development, accreditation processes, and adherence to system-wide academic regulations and strategic goals. He also facilitates the sharing and coordinating of best practices in student success and academic support across the system and supports and advises the Chief Strategy Officer, Chancellor, the Board of Regents, and other UNT System leadership on developing a long-term academic strategic plan suitable to the demands and changing expectations of the 21st century.

Prior to coming to the University of North Texas System, Dr. von Eschenbach spent nearly 14 years at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, as a faculty member and administrator. He served in various leadership roles within the Provost’s Office at Notre Dame, including as the Associate Vice President and Assistant Provost responsible for overseeing Notre Dame’s 11 international locations and 48 study abroad programs, Academic Director of the London Global Gateway where he was the chief executive at Notre Dame’s largest campus outside South Bend, Senior Advisor to the Provost, and most recently was instrumental in launching the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center as the Inaugural Managing Director.

During his tenure at Notre Dame, Dr. von Eschenbach was responsible for overseeing several academic programs, budgets, facilities, faculty members, and staff. He also was responsible for creating student success initiatives and professional development programs for faculty members; curriculum and program development and assessment; and in building strategic partnerships with universities, corporations, and alumni. Through these roles he successfully created the University’s first multidisciplinary minor in technology ethics, recruited faculty members affiliated with the new Center, developed partnerships internationally to support faculty research and collaborations across campus, implemented a new core curriculum for international programs, increased enrollment for study abroad while cutting costs and implementing a new financial model to increase revenue for programming, increased the number of internship and experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students, and created research opportunities for PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows. Dr. von Eschenbach also was successful in raising philanthropic support, including securing a $1M endowment in partnership with the College of Arts and Letters to support undergraduate research in the UK. In 2015, Dr. von Eschenbach and his team in London were awarded the Presidential Team Irish Award for exemplifying the University of Notre Dame’s core values.

Dr. von Eschenbach was a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Information Technology, Analytics & Operations in the Mendoza College of Business where he taught Fundamentals of Technology Ethics & Society, Ethics of Business and Data Analytics, Ethics and Politics, British Moral Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Existential Themes. He also was a faculty fellow at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and a faculty associate of the Center for Italian Studies.

Dr. von Eschenbach has published articles in Philosophy & Technology, The Journal of Global Ethics, Culture e Fede: Journal of the Pontifical Council for Culture, The Journal of Value Inquiry, America Magazine, and Indigo Humanities Journal. He also is a contributing author to Encountering Artificial Intelligence: Ethical and Anthropological Explorations (Pickwick Press, 2024) and Virtues in the Public Sphere: Citizenship, Civic Friendship, and Duty(Routledge, 2019).

Dr. von Eschenbach earned his PhD in philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin, specializing in ethics and 19th and 20th-century European philosophy; a master’s degree in philosophy from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He is a member of the executive committee of the North America Association for Philosophy & Education, a member of the AI Research Group at the Vatican Center for Digital Culture, Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education, and a reviewer for Philosophy & Technology, Synthese, and the Journal of Philosophy.

Dr. von Eschenbach and his wife, Rachael, who is co-founder of Mindful U, LLC., met while he attended Strake Jesuit College Prep and she attended St. Agnes Academy in Houston, have been married for 23 years, and have three wonderful children.