[bioundgrd] some changes in department leadership

[Alan D Grossman]

Dear colleagues,

I write to announce some changes in department leadership and to thank several faculty members for their service to the department.

Many thanks to Amy Keating for agreeing to serve as an Associate Department Head in addition to her role as co-director of the graduate program.

Amy is succeeding Mike Laub, who stepped away from the positions of Associate Head and Director of Scientific Operations (DSO) for Building 68 to serve as co-chair of the new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee with Yukiko Yamashita. Many thanks to Mike for his service has Associate Head and DSO, and for taking on this important new position. And thanks to Yukiko for agreeing to co-chair the DEI committee, even before she is officially an MIT faculty member!

The DEI committee that Mike and Yukiko are chairing is itself a successor to the 2019-2020 DEI committee that was chaired by Jackie Lees and Iain Cheeseman. I formed that committee in the fall 2019 and asked for recommendations about how to improve diversity, inclusiveness, and overall climate, with a particular focus on faculty recruitment and retention. We are enormously grateful to Jackie and Iain and the entire 2019-2020 DEI Committee (Jackie and Iain, Laurie Boyer, Eliezer Calo, Mary Gehring, Becky Lamason, Aviv Regev, and Matt Vander Heiden) for their important work over the past year. The new committee chaired by Mike and Yukiko will have an expanded focus, and will build on, expand, and help implement the recommendations from the 2019-2020 committee.

Mary Gehring, who also co-directs the graduate program, is on sabbatical this year, and Iain Cheeseman has graciously agreed to serve as interim co-director. Thank you, Iain!

I want to again thank Steve Bell for his many years of service as director or co-director of our graduate program. As you know, Steve stepped away from this responsibility in the spring. Steve as agreed to serve as the Director of Scientific Operations for Building 68.

Lastly, I want to thank those continuing in leadership positions: Peter Reddien and Jackie Lees as Associate Department Heads, Cathy Drennan and Adam Martin as co-directors of our undergraduate program, and Amy as co-director of our graduate program.

It is a pleasure for me to work with a wonderful group of colleagues who are dedicated to serving our department.

Gratefully,
Alan

Alan D. Grossman
Professor and Head
Department of Biology
Building 68-530
M.I.T.
Cambridge, MA   02139

(617) 253-1515
adg at mit.edu<mailto:adg at mit.edu>





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