Shari Obrentz, PhD

An Associate Dean in the Office for Undergraduate Education, Shari Obrentz oversees New Student Programs (First-year and Transfer Orientation, Oxford ATLBound) and Returning Student Programs. She develops and oversees the ECS 101: The Emory Edge course that all first-year students complete during their first semester. Prior to her current appointment as Associate Dean, Dean Obrentz served as the director of Pre-Health Advising (2012-2022) learning specialist and director of the EPASS peer tutoring and mentoring programs (2005-2011).

Dean Obrentz serves on the Enrollment Management, Admissions and Scholarship and numerous Orientation Experience committees. Her work includes retention efforts, especially through targeted advising and support programs, and assessment of programs and services.

Dean Obrentz is from Atlanta. She earned a BA from Washington University in St. Louis (2001), with majors in Psychology and Spanish, a MS in Professional Counseling (2005) and PhD in Educational Psychology (2011) from Georgia State University where she focused on motivation and learning strategies for college students. She earned a certificate in Project Management in 2014 from Emory Continuing Education and participated in Emory's Excellence Through Leadership (ETL) cohort (2014-15). In 2020, she earned an Executive Coaching diploma from Goizueta Business School.

• PhD in Educational Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 2011
• MS in Professional Counseling, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 2005
• BA in Psychology and Spanish, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, 2001