Hilary Robinson, head of the School of Art and Design at the University of Ulster, United Kingdom, is the new dean of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University.

The appointment, announced yesterday, is effective Aug. 1. She succeeds Martin Prekop, who has led the college for 12 years and will rejoin the College of Fine Arts faculty, Carnegie Mellon said.

Robinson has been a member of the University of Ulster faculty since 1992. Widely published, she was trained as a painter in the 1970s and has worked as an artist and as a freelance arts administrator, critic and lecturer.