Christina Ferando ’97, a scholar of art history and recent Chester Dale Fellow fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will serve as the new dean of Jonathan Edwards College, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway announced Wednesday afternoon.

Ferando will succeed Jody Spooner, who announced in June that he would resign to head Ferrum College in Virginia. Ferando was an English major at Yale College, before pursuing further studies at Columbia University and a career in art history. She has taught courses at Columbia University and Williams College.

“[Ferando] is bilingual in Italian—and prides herself on her amaretto cake,” Holloway wrote Wednesday. “But her interests are eclectic: she is a fan of mystery novels, a lover of the beach, and a mini-golf enthusiast.”

Specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art, Fernando has written extensively on the neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova and has earned fellowships such as the Lauro de Bosis Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the History of Italian Civilization at Harvard University.

In her role as a mentor to undergraduates, Holloway said Fernando has been described as “thoughtful and energetic” and deeply committed to building community.

Fernando will be joined by her husband Jason Atkinson, a musician and educator. Their son, Holden, who will be two in September.