Within the last couple of decades, higher education faced unprecedented change. As higher education changed, academic deans' roles also changed to meet the demands of increased enrollment and serving diverse student populations. Academic deans lead from the middle of higher education institutions; they must report to university administration, while simultaneously serving the faculty members within their respective colleges or schools. To meet all of these demands, academic deans must develop specific skillsets to lead their colleges or schools effectively. Emotional intelligence serves as a possible skillset for academic deans to utilize in navigating between their administrative duties and serving as leaders for their staff and faculty. The researcher focused this study on determining whether academic deans' emotional intelligence is related to their leadership effectiveness. The research questions that guided the study were, "1. What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness in academic deans at public, mid-size, Texas 4-year higher education institutions? 2. What differences exist within academic deans' self-reported scores of emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness in different generational cohorts, gender, and position duration?" The researcher hypothesized that emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness were related. Additionally, the researcher hypothesized that there would be significant differences in the scores based on gender, age, and position duration. Through a multi-sectioned survey consisting of demographic questions, the Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory self-report, and the Leadership Practices Inventory self-report, the researcher measured whether emotional intelligence, age, gender, and position duration served as predictor variables for leadership effectiveness. The researcher also measured the statistical differences regarding the constructs of emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness between participant demographics, generational cohort, gender, and years served as an academic dean (position duration). Results indicated that one of the hypotheses was supported, four could neither be supported or unsupported, and two could not be supported. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]