The IAB includes a cross-section of UC Davis academic and administrative leaders. It is comprised of the deans of the five STEM colleges, Chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate, Associate Executive Vice Chancellor (who is the Affirmative Action Officer at UC Davis and is responsible for University Community Outreach), and Director of Interdisciplinary Research Services. This committee is chaired by Professor and College of Engineering Dean Jennifer Sinclair Curtis.
The IAB advises the PI and Steering Committee on ways to optimize programmatic activities and champions UC Davis ADVANCE during campus-level resource-allocation decisions.
Jennifer Sinclair Curtis is Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Davis. In her role as the Associate Dean for Research at the University of Florida, she supported faculty and researchers in developing and maintaining research programs, including promoting interdisciplinary research, working with research sponsors and funding agencies, coordinating the college’s research institutes and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Helene R. Dillard was appointed dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis in January 2014. Her goal is to build upon the strengths of the college in research, teaching, extension and outreach, and maintain strong relationships with the broad range of stakeholders in California, nationally, and globally. In addition to her responsibilities as dean, she has programmatic responsibilities for the college’s Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension.
Professor Knoesen serves as the Chair of the UC Davis Academic Senate, a governing body that interacts extensively with the Policy & Practices Review Initiative during formal consultation processes for suggested policy changes to facilitate institutional transformation. His research interests as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (1987 – present) lie in several areas: optics; electromagnetics and electronics relating to applications of structured supramolecular functional composite materials; and intersection of these topics with the life sciences.
Alexandra Navrotsky was educated at the Bronx High School of Science and the University of Chicago (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in physical chemistry). After postdoctoral work in Germany and at Penn State University, she joined the faculty in Chemistry at Arizona State University, where she remained till her move to the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton University in 1985. She chaired that department from 1988 to 1991 and has been active in the Princeton Materials Institute.
Rahim Reed assumed his responsibilities as the Associate Executive Vice Chancellor for Campus Community Relations (AEVC) at UC Davis on September 17, 2001. The AEVC serves as the primary advisor on matters of campus community relations to deans, vice chancellors, vice provosts and other senior campus administrators. The primary responsibility of OCCR is to help the University chart a course that will ensure attention to those components of campus’ social environment that affect community, campus climate, diversity and inclusiveness.
Sheryl Soucy-Lubell is the Director of Interdisciplinary Research Support team in the UC Davis Office of Research. Under her direction, this team is responsible for the preparation of major grant and contract proposals for large-scale, interdisciplinary research programs. As director of this unit, Sheryl identifies and develops collaborative efforts in pursuit of extramural funding opportunities; advises campus administrators in prioritizing research efforts by determining UC Davis research capacity in specific areas and forecasting opportunities for success prior to committing resources; and conducts campus-wide research development activities such as workshops, trainings, program officer visits, funding opportunity searches and dissemination, and research team building.
Peter C. Wainwright is a Professor of Evolution & Ecology at UC Davis and Interim Dean of the College of Biological Sciences. He received his B.S. degree in Zoology at Duke University in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Anatomy in 1988 at the University of Chicago. Prior to his appointment at UC Davis in 1999, he was a Professor of Biological Sciences at Florida State University and before that a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California, Irvine. Professor Wainwright’s research program focuses on the biomechanics and evolution of fishes.
Li Zhang is the Interim Dean of the Division of Social Sciences within the College of Letters and Sciences, and previously served as Department Chair and Professor of Anthropology. Her research is on the social, political, and cultural repercussions of market reform and socialist transformations in contemporary China. She completed her second book that examines the social and spatial implications of housing privatization and the making of the new middle classes in urban China.
