Thein is associate provost for graduate and professional education and dean of the Graduate College at the University of Iowa. She previously served as associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the UI College of Education  and is professor of literacy, culture, and language education. Before coming to Iowa in 2011, she was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, and a high school English teacher in Denver, Colorado. She received a PhD in English Education from the University of Minnesota and holds additional degrees from the University of Denver (MA, Curriculum and Instruction), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (BA, English; BS, Journalism). She has participated in leadership education through the Harvard Institute for High Education’s Management Development Program and the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s Leadership Development Program.

Thein served as associate dean in the College of Education from 2016 to 2021, and in this role, she oversaw graduate programs, graduate student success initiatives, faculty, academic affairs, and international programs. Prior to her role as associate dean, Thein held several additional leadership positions in graduate education beginning as program coordinator for the English Education PhD, MAT, and MA programs at the University of Pittsburgh, and then as program coordinator for the Language, Literacy, and Culture PhD program at Iowa. She has directed 13 dissertations and served on an additional 30 dissertation committees.

Thein’s research focuses on social justice and equity in high school English language arts instruction and teacher education. She studies social and emotional aspects of high school students’ literary responses; critical approaches to multicultural literature instruction; and the intersection of critical youth studies and young adult literature. She has published more than 30 journal articles, book chapters, and books, and her scholarship has been supported by grants from the National Council of Teachers of English, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, and the Iowa Women’s Foundation.