Teresa Taber Doughty, PhD, is the seventh dean of the School of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is a professor of special education and spent many years researching animal therapy outcomes for individuals with severe disabilities. Doughty has authored and co-authored more than 60 professional publications. She currently serves as a Quality Review team lead for the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), previously served on the Board of Examiners for CAEP/NCATE, and as the Executive Director for the Division of Autism and Developmental Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children.

Doughty has spent more than two decades working in higher education, following an impactful career as a classroom teacher. She began her higher education journey at Georgia State University, where she served as an assistant project director on a grant while working on her doctoral degree in severe disabilities. Upon completing her doctoral degree, Doughty began teaching courses while working on the grant, which led to her passion as a professor. When the grant ended, she received an offer to join the faculty at Purdue University.

Doughty spent 17 years at Purdue mentoring hundreds of students, teaching over two dozen different courses, developing new problems and curricula, garnering grant funding to support educator preparation and research, earning numerous accolades and name recognition due to her scholarship and involvement in national and international organizations.

Before joining the UAB community, she served as the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas Arlington for six years, overseeing the college's transition to a newly classified Research 1 institution. She worked to balance high-quality educator preparation while increasing research productivity and impact by developing a culture around research, scholarship, and student success.

Doughty's extensive knowledge and background in working for well-established and establishing Research 1 institutions motivated her to join UAB. She hopes to use her professional and life experience to inspire the School's faculty, staff, and students to achieve greatness and strive to impact the education and human science industries.