Let’s catch you up on changes in campus leadership as we begin the academic year:

Zhang

Anthropology professor Li Zhang returned from her research in China this summer to assume the role of  interim dean of the Division of Social Sciences. She served as the anthropology department chair from 2011 until being named interim dean.

A faculty member since 1998, she served as director of the East Asian Studies Program from 2003 to 2006, chair of the anthropology department’s sociocultural wing in 2007-08 and was a Chancellor’s Fellow from 2004-05 to 2009-10.

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi said: “We are grateful to have Professor Zhang fill this role. Li is a proven administrator as well as being accomplished in her field.”

In addition, Professor Peter Wainwright of evolution and ecology started July 1 as interim dean of the College of Biological Sciences, Joanna Regulska joined UC Davis on Sept. 1 as vice provost and associate chancellor of Global Affairs, and Jennifer Sinclair Curtis starts Oct. 19 as the engineering dean.

Regulska held a similar position in international affairs at Rutgers before coming to UC Davis, while Curtis is coming here from the University of Florida where she has served as associate dean for Research and Facilities in the College of Engineering since 2012.

Now UC Davis begins the process of filling several other positions on a permanent basis. Recruitment advisory committees are due to be established soon for dean of the College of Biologicial Sciences and dean of the Graduate School of Management, where economics professor Ann Huff Stevens is interim dean.

Another recruitment advisory committee will be established soon for a single dean to lead the College of Letters and Science. This will be a new position in a new administrative structure for L&S, to take effect in mid-2016.

The university announced the L&S reorganization on June 11, culminating a discussion that had been underway for several years.

For now, the college has three interim divisional deans, each of whom replaced a dean who stepped down. The interim deans are Susan Kaiser in Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies; Alexandra Navrotsky in Mathematics and Physical Sciences; and Zhang in social sciences.

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