All seminars will be held at 11 a.m. in Clough 152. The finalists’ seminars will be held on the following dates:

Candidate No. 1: Tuesday, Sept. 7

Candidate No. 2: Thursday, Sept. 9

Candidate No. 3: Tuesday, Sept. 14

Candidate No. 4: Tuesday, Sept. 21

Candidate No. 5: Thursday, Sept. 23

Links to each candidate’s page are available on the College of Design Dean Search site. Additional details, including each candidate’s bio and curriculum vitae, as well as links to the post-event videos and feedback surveys, are available on candidate pages. Please note that Georgia Tech login credentials are required to access all candidate pages.

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) announced four winning proposals for a new accessibility-focused seed grant research program funded by Microsoft.  

Rinehart joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2013. In her role as associate dean, she oversees a broad range of College programs, including academic affairs and curriculum, admissions and outreach, faculty affairs and development, and assessment and accreditation. Rinehart also serves as a member of the teaching faculty in the School of Architecture, coordinating the first-year design studio sequence and teaching the History of Architecture, among others. She is the faculty leader of the Exploring Architecture and Design summer track for incoming students, and a faculty advisor to the Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society (Rho Chapter) and several other student organizations. Rinehart also continues to serve as part of the Academic Steering Committee of the Institutional Response to Covid-19 team.

“Many thanks to Michelle Rinehart for serving as interim dean of the College of Design,” said Steven W. McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “Michelle is a skilled administrator and leader who invests incredible energy in her colleagues, students, and the Institute overall. We are grateful for her leadership through this transition.”

Rinehart has nearly 30 years of experience in higher education. Her varying leadership and administrative roles have also included experience in enrollment management, student services, academic advising, and budgets and finance. She holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Architecture from Tulane University.

Rinehart will serve until a new dean is named. The work of the search committee, chaired by Dean Kaye Husbands Fealing of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, is well underway, with assistance from search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.

“I’m excited to welcome the sixth cohort of the Emerging Leaders Program,” said Steven W. McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “The program supports faculty invested in pursuing their leadership journey, which benefits the Institute’s strategic plan goals and the Georgia Tech community as a whole.”

The sixth cohort reflects many of Georgia Tech’s Schools and Colleges.

College of Design

• Young Mi Choi, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, School of Industrial Design

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts 

• Justin B. Biddle, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy
• Jenna Jordan, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
• Usha Nair-Reichert, Associate Professor and Director of Master’s Programs, School of Economics

College of Sciences 

• Andrew Newman, Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Zhigang Peng, Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Chandra Raman, Professor, School of Physics

College of Engineering

• Chloé Arson, Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Lakshmi Prasad Dasi, Rozelle Vanda Wesley Professor and Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
• Elliot Moore II, Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Affairs, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Kamran Paynabar, Fouts Family Early Career Professor and Associate Professor, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Mary Lynn Realff, Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs, School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Julian J. Rimoli, Pratt & Whitney Professor and Associate Professor, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
• Iris Tien, Williams Family Early Career Professor and Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• May Dongmei Wang, Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
• Shannon Yee, Associate Professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

The Emerging Leaders Program started in 2016 and is designed for associate and full professors who have attained tenure. The program is a collaboration between the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research, the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact, and the Office of Graduate Education and Faculty Development. 

Learn more about the Emerging Leaders Program.

Provost Steven W. McLaughlin will serve as interim vice provost for International Initiatives from July 1 to July 31. To help facilitate the transition, Iyonka Strawn-Valcy, director of Global Operations, will serve as interim senior associate vice provost from July 1 to August 31. In this role, Strawn-Valcy will oversee day-to-day operations of the vice provost for International Initiatives division and triage administrative, operational, and strategic issues and activities. 

“I’m so pleased that Bernard Kippelen will be our next vice provost for International Initiatives,” said Steven W. McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “In his long and admirable career at Georgia Tech, he has demonstrated a strong commitment to developing international partnerships that expand Georgia Tech’s global reach and deliver excellence in teaching and research. His leadership will be invaluable as we move forward with international initiatives. I would also like to thank Iyonka Strawn-Valcy for her support as interim senior associate vice provost during the transition period.”

Adam Stulberg, chair of the Nunn School of International Affairs, served as chair of the search committee.

As co-president of the Lafayette Institute, Kippelen oversees a collaborative innovation platform and commercialization initiative for optoelectronics and advanced materials research based at Georgia Tech-Lorraine. He joined the faculty at the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2003 and served as director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics from 2011 to 2019.

“I am honored and excited to begin work as the next vice provost for International Initiatives,” said Kippelen. “Georgia Tech is a globally recognized partner in international cooperation and collaboration in research and education. I am fortunate to join a dedicated and talented team. Working together across geopolitical, cultural, and linguistic boundaries gives us the ability to solve complex research challenges and prepare our students to become globally minded, cross-culturally competent leaders.”

Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Kippelen was a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France and a faculty member at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, where he developed a research and teaching program on polymer optics and plastic electronics.

Kippelen’s research includes investigation of fundamental physical processes such as light harvesting and emission, as well as the design, fabrication, and testing of lightweight optoelectronic devices and circuits including organic solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, printable transistors, and organic photodiodes. He has served as chair and co-chair of numerous international conferences on organic optoelectronic materials and devices. He holds 26 patents, has co-authored over 270 refereed publications and 14 book chapters, and is the founding editor of Energy Express.

Born and raised in Alsace, France, Kippelen studied at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, where he received a maîtrise in solid-state physics in 1985 and a Ph.D. in nonlinear optics in 1990.

In 1997 Nerem recruited Andrés García and his wife, Michelle LaPlaca, to join the pioneering IBB program at Tech after they completed their work as postdoctoral fellows at the University of Pennsylvania — his in cell and molecular biology, hers in neurotrauma.

In 1998 when García and LaPlaca joined Tech, IBB launched its National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center in Tissue Engineering with Emory University, making it a strategic community for García to join to start his research program in an emerging field. Now as executive director of IBB and a Regents Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, García is continuing Nerem’s legacy of vision, collaboration, and innovation in everything he does. In recognition of his work, he is the 2021 recipient of the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, the highest honor given to a Georgia Tech professor. The award is presented to a professor who has made significant, long-term contributions to teaching, research, and public service.

Known as a global pioneer in developing biomaterials systems for translational applications in regenerative medicine, García holds more than a dozen U.S. patents. Discoveries include the development of hydrogels for protein and cell delivery in regenerative medicine, engineering biofunctional materials to improve islet survival, and the design of infection-fighting materials. His research focuses on creating an engineered class of materials that can be used for applications to transplant a graft without immune-suppressive drugs. Human studies are planned to start next year. Researchers in his lab are developing new ways to treat Type 1 diabetes, eventually working with adult stem cells to reprogram them into insulin-producing cells. Future applications include addressing kidney failure and other diseases.

Creating Opportunities for ‘Collisions’

García is enthusiastic about his research, as well as all of the collaborative research in IBB. “IBB is a fantastic community of faculty, trainees, and staff who come together in making discoveries and developing the technologies in bioengineering and bioscience that will change the world,” he said. His goal is that IBB will continue to expand research and integrative opportunities to have a major economic impact, creating an environment to translate research into commercial products and therapies. “With IBB we want to provide opportunities for ‘collisions,’ unexpected interactions that lead to the discoveries. It was Bob Nerem’s vision to drive that sort of collaboration,” he said.

García shared an example of one such collision: “As part of a grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), I was required to present unpublished research progress at a meeting with other researchers from throughout the country. After I made my presentation that morning, a JDRF director announced that for the next three-year cycle of funding we would need to collaborate with someone in the room on research. We went to lunch, and as I was building my sandwich, an immunologist introduced himself to me, complimented me on my presentation, and asked me if I thought I could develop a biomaterial to deliver the particular protein he was working with. You never ask an engineer if they think they can do something. They’ll find a way. I said I could, and we started working together.”

An elected member of both the National Academy of Inventors and the National Academy of Engineering, García has established three startup companies in the past seven years. He has received numerous awards for his teaching and research and has published more than 230 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals.

Mentoring Students

García has supervised 15 postdoctoral researchers and advised/co-advised 37 Ph.D. students. He is known for his long-term commitment to his trainees, as well as mentoring students outside of his laboratory and classroom. While he has not taught for the past three years because of his responsibilities as IBB executive director, he still mentors students in his lab.

“I take my responsibility as a mentor and supervisor seriously. It is important to have one-to-one interactions,” García said. “I take a practical approach and feel it is critical to explain why learning a topic is important, sharing practical applications, and offering experiential hands-on learning. I have had very supportive and engaged mentors and would like to pass that on to others.”

Background

A native of Puerto Rico, García originally came to the states to study at Cornell University. He was very interested in the emerging field of biomedical engineering, but his father, an industrial engineer, advised him to major in another engineering discipline as a backup in case the biomedical field didn’t develop as anticipated. García took his father’s advice, earning his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and also taking biology and bioengineering classes.

During his senior year García participated in a project to design a structure to support fractured legs for horses. He worked to optimize the way a “boot” attached to the bone so that it wouldn’t fracture again. He became interested in research, and his professors recommended that he go to graduate school. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. García was the first person in his immediate family to earn a doctoral degree.

García and his family have embraced all things Georgia Tech. He and LaPlaca have two sons, Rafael, a Tech mechanical engineering (ME 2018) graduate working at GTRI, and Andrés, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at Tech. They hold season basketball and football tickets. One of their dogs is named Buzz.

García said he was deeply honored, humbled, and shocked when Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera called and told him he had been selected for this year’s Distinguished Professor Award. “The award is special to me because it reflects the great contributions my friends, family, and peers have made in my life to get me to this point. I am grateful for my trainees, my collaborators, and colleagues, and for the support that Georgia Tech has provided in giving me the tools to succeed. Georgia Tech is the best,” García said.

Quotes From Colleagues and Former Students

“Professor García has been an integral part of growth of the international reputation of our bioengineering program and the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. Having seen the sustained impact that he has had on students from K-12 (Project Engages) through graduate students, he is a remarkable educator who I feel is well deserving of this award.”

Sam Graham
Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. School Chair in Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Tech
 

“He remains on my short list of speakers because I resonate so strongly with his approach — very deep technical skills, outstanding problem definition, and tremendous colleague in service and collegiality. He is also a terrific mentor, and his former lab members are stars. He cares about doing great science and teaching people what he learned. Andrés García is a gem at Georgia Tech, and as an alum I hope you can keep him there — he is doing some of the best biology on campus and is a superb attractor of the best students from MIT.”

Linda G. Griffith
S.E.T.I. Professor of Mechanical and Biological Engineering
Director, MIT Center for Gynepathology Research
Chair, MIT Biological Engineering Undergraduate Programs Committee

“The lab around Professor García performs research at a unique broadness and depth. His remarkable combination of professional and personal skills is the key for his success and makes him a highly estimated collaboration partner for other scientists across disciplines and continents. He is the most invited American scientist at plenary lectures in European conferences on biomaterials. This is not only due to the high quality of his work, but also to his ability as a communicator and active discussion partner, his openness to address new topics in collaboration, and his passion for science and education that truly inspires and motivates young researchers.”

Aránzazu del Campo
Director INM-Leibniz Institute for New Materials
Professor, Materials Synthesis, Saarland University

“The five years that I spent in Andrés’ lab were transformative for me, and the influence of that experience is difficult to put into words. Andrés taught me many things — how to be a scientist; how to develop creative and impactful ideas; how to execute on those ideas; how to write; how to present, etc. But more important than all the technical aspects of what I learned from Andrés, I learned from him who I wanted to be. Most of my professional life, and much of my personal life, is modeled after what I have learned from watching Andrés as a professor, colleague, friend, father, and husband.”

Charles Gersbach
Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Director, Center for Biomolecular and Tissue Engineering
Director, Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies
Duke University

Colin Potts, current vice provost for Undergraduate Education, has accepted the position of provost and executive vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Girardot has served as associate vice provost for Undergraduate Education since 2012, overseeing the operations and administration of the Office of Undergraduate Education as well as many of the co-curricular units such as the Career Center, Tutoring and Academic Support, Academic Engagement Programs (UROP, Living Learning Communities, and Student Innovation Programs), and Pre-Professional and Pre-Graduate Advising. In addition, he oversees campuswide initiatives, including Complete College Georgia, Momentum Year, Summer, and Special Sessions. He is currently Georgia Tech’s representative on the University System of Georgia’s General Education Council.

Prior to joining the Office of Undergraduate Education, Girardot was director of Success Programs (later the Center for Academic Success) and worked to develop and implement many of Tech’s academic support and transition programs. He regularly presents on topics related to student success and serves on several advisory boards and national organizations, including the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.

“We are grateful for Steven’s continued service to Georgia Tech,” said Steven W. McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “His leadership, experience, and passion for student success will serve the Institute and the Office of Undergraduate Education well during this transition.” 

Girardot has more than 20 years of higher education experience and is a proud Georgia Tech alumnus, having earned both a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.S. in chemistry. He also holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Emory University and a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.

A search for the next leader of Undergraduate Education will commence in the coming weeks. Girardot will serve until the position is filled.

The two searches will run concurrently and will fill the upcoming vacancies by Dean Steve French and Vice Provost Yves Berthelot, respectively.

The search for the new dean of the College of Design will be chaired by Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, and supported by the Russell Reynolds Associates search firm. Adam Stulberg, Sam Nunn Professor and Chair in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, will lead the search for the vice provost for International Initiatives. Michael Toney, director of Academic Administration, will serve as administrative lead for both searches.

“Dean French and Vice Provost Berthelot have provided invaluable leadership to their respective areas and we are grateful for their service to Tech, particularly over the past year,” McLaughlin said. “I invite faculty, staff, and students to join us as we search for our new leaders. Community input is welcome and encouraged as we identify the best candidates to continue our forward momentum as an institution and realize the goals set forth in our new strategic plan.”

Virtual town halls for faculty, staff, and students to learn about the respective search processes and timelines, and to provide feedback on the characteristics of ideal candidates have been scheduled as follows:

• College of Design: Thursday, April 8 (separate faculty, staff, and student meetings throughout day)
• International Initiatives: Thursday, April 8, at 11 a.m. (campuswide)

Search details, including committee rosters, ongoing updates, and specific information on the town hall sessions for each search can be found at https://provost.gatech.edu/design-dean-search and https://provost.gatech.edu/vice-provost-international-initiatives-search.

“After an extensive search, we’re so glad to welcome Dawn to our team,” said Bonnie Ferri, vice provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development. “Her enthusiasm as well as her years of experience when it comes to supporting faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and students make Dawn an important asset who will help our office as we put Georgia Tech’s new strategic plan into action within our unit.”   

Since 2020, Baunach has served as the interim associate dean for Faculty/Student Development and Strategic Initiatives in the Norman J. Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kennesaw State University.

Baunach came to Kennesaw in 2016 to serve as a professor of Sociology and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. During her time at the university, Baunach received Kennesaw’s Teresa M. Joyce Presidential Diversity Award and served as diversity fellow for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

She also established a College Diversity Council and Makerspace Advisory Board within the Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and created a New Faculty Series to support new college faculty in their first year.

Prior to 2016, Baunach spent 20 years serving in roles ranging from director of Graduate Studies to interim chair in the Department of Sociology at Georgia State University. In these positions, her accomplishments included creating an alumni advisory board, developing a faculty affiliate program for scholars internal and external to the university, increasing graduate student enrollment by 50%, and doubling funding levels for graduate teaching and research assistants.

Baunach earned a bachelor’s in sociology from Duke University, and a master’s and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Virginia.

“I’m thrilled to join Georgia Tech's community of world-class faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars, and am looking forward to helping them grow and succeed,” Baunach said. “Plus, I’m especially excited about collaborating with my colleagues in Graduate Education and Faculty Development on initiatives that support leaders in technology — leaders who can use their skills to ultimately improve the human condition. This position feels like a perfect fit for where I’m at in my career.”

“Yves has always championed the necessity of global cooperation in solving the great challenges of the 21^st century,” said Steven McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “His leadership, diplomatic talent, and vision have been instrumental in the development of Georgia Tech’s international presence. We will miss him, and we wish him the very best in retirement.”

Berthelot took the role of vice provost for International Initiatives in 2012, directing the Institute’s Global Positioning Strategy and significantly growing international activities in education, research, economic development, and alumni outreach in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Prior to taking the role of vice provost for International Initiatives, Berthelot served as the president of GTL in Metz, France, a position he has held since 2005. Berthelot was instrumental in launching the undergraduate program at GTL, which resulted in significant growth in student enrollment. Each year, close to 700 undergraduate and graduate students study at the Lorraine campus. In 2006, GTL launched the Unité Mixte Internationale (UMI) 2958 GT-CNRS, a unique international joint laboratory between Georgia Tech and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Renamed International Research Laboratories (IRL) by CNRS in 2020, this international partnership fueled significant growth at GTL over the past several years. In 2014, the campus celebrated the launch of the Lafayette Institute, a $30 million facility that facilitates the commercialization of innovations in optoelectronics. Georgia Tech's international initiatives reached another milestone in 2016, when the Institute formalized its presence in China by establishing a campus in the high-tech city of Shenzhen.

Berthelot was also closely involved in the inception and launch of France-Atlanta in 2010, an annual series of high-caliber events focused on innovation and designed to foster transatlantic cooperation and exchange. Over its 11 years of existence, France-Atlanta has grown into a multidisciplinary affair, with 3,000 scholars, artists, and visionaries exchanging ideas and exploring possible areas of cooperation at its events each year. France-Atlanta has led to lasting partnerships with local institutions, including a startup exchange program between the cities of Atlanta and Toulouse, the creation of an International Associated Library, and an education series that has reached nearly 5,000 students by bringing French-speaking professionals into metro Atlanta classrooms.

A native of France, Berthelot first joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 1985. Early in his career, his passions for music and engineering led him to combine those interests, specializing in acoustics, sound, and ultrasound throughout his academic career. He holds two patents and has received numerous awards for his research in laser ultrasonics.

Berthelot will remain vice provost for International Initiatives while a search commences. Details on the search process and the leadership transition will be announced later this spring.

Potts has led Georgia Tech’s Office of Undergraduate Education since 2012, overseeing offices and programs affecting undergraduate education including Serve-Learn-Sustain, the Honors Program, Undergraduate Advising and Transition, Academic Enrichment Programs, Tutoring and Academic Support, Complete College Georgia and Retention, Summer Session Initiatives, the Career Center, and Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising. He has led or convened task forces on academic advising, the academic calendar, and curricular flexibility. On the national scene, Potts is president of the Reinvention Collaborative, a coalition of more than 80 national research universities focusing on undergraduate education in research-intensive environments.

“We have all benefited tremendously from Colin Potts’ commitment to the students, faculty, and staff of Georgia Tech,” said Steven McLaughlin, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “The same innovative spirit in his teaching and research is reflected in his leadership. He redesigned and strengthened academic advising and led the consolidation of Career Services and Cooperative Education to create C2D2. I am also personally very grateful for his work on the Strategic Plan Steering Committee and the Georgia Tech Covid-19 Task Force. Over the past almost three decades, he has left his mark on Georgia Tech, and I know he will make great contributions in his new role at Missouri S&T.”

Potts joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1992 and is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing. His research has spanned the fields of requirements engineering, software design methods, human-computer interaction, and information privacy. Potts designed and taught courses at all levels in software engineering, human-computer interaction design and the social implications of computing, and received the 2010 William “Gus” Baird Faculty Teaching Award and the 2012 Eichholz Faculty Teaching Award. He frequently teaches introductory courses in computer science to non-majors. He has conducted nine study abroad programs in Oxford and Barcelona, and has led a living learning community.

In 2014, the Georgia Tech Undergraduate House of Representatives presented him with the Dean James E. Dull Administrator of the Year Award. That same year, the Georgia Tech Student Ambassadors presented him with the Modern Day Aristotle Award. 

Before joining Georgia Tech, Potts worked as a senior member of the technical staff at Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation in Austin. A native of England, he earned a Ph.D. from Sheffield University in cognitive psychology.

The Office of Undergraduate Education will remain under his leadership while a search commences. Details on the search process and the leadership transition will be announced later this spring.

“We are fortunate to have the largest and one of the best engineering programs in the nation, in large part due to the teaching, research, and national leadership of our faculty. Raheem Beyah is collaborative, visionary, innovative, and committed to people. I look forward to working even more closely with him in his new leadership role in the College of Engineering,” said Steven McLaughlin.

Beyah is a Georgia Tech alumnus. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech in 1999 and 2003, respectively. He received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1998. A native Atlantan, he is a graduate of the Atlanta Public Schools system.

Beyah also leads the Communications Assurance and Performance Group and is affiliated with the Institute for Information Security and Privacy. He is co-founder and board chair of Fortiphyd Logic Inc., an industrial cybersecurity company. He serves as Institute data security lead. He is co-founder and a steering committee member of the Academic and Research Leadership Network.

He has held several additional leadership roles at Tech, including serving as interim Steve W. Chaddick ECE School Chair during the 2017-18 academic year, ECE's associate chair for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation (2016-18), and chair of ECE's Computer Systems and Software Technical Interest Group (2015-17).  He received the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2009 and was selected for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Computer Science Study Panel in 2010. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), a lifetime member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) distinguished scientist.

Prior to becoming a faculty member at Georgia Tech, Beyah was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Georgia State University, a research engineer with ECE at Tech, and a consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). He has served as guest editor for a number of journals and magazines, including IEEE Network Magazine and IEEE Communications Magazine, and as associate editor of several journals in the field.

He has been named to Atlanta Magazine’s “Atlanta 500,” the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Up & Comers: 40 Under 40,” and Georgia Trend Magazine’s “40 Best and Brightest Under 40.” Active in the community, he is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta, Leadership Georgia, and L.E.A.D Atlanta.

Leading the 19-member College of Engineering Dean Search Committee was Ayanna Howard, professor and chair, School of Interactive Computing. “We are very grateful to Dr. Howard and all of the members of the search committee for their thorough work on a short timeline and during a challenging semester,” said McLaughlin.

The Georgia Tech College of Engineering continues to be recognized as an elite engineering school and one of the top public institutions in the nation. The undergraduate engineering program at the College is ranked No. 4, and the graduate program is ranked No. 8 in the latest America's Best Colleges edition of U.S. News & World Report. All of the programs, both graduate and undergraduate, offered by the nation’s largest and most diverse engineering college placed among the top 10 in their respective areas. The College is also ranked No. 1 in doctoral degrees awarded to African Americans (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education) and is the largest producer of engineering degrees awarded to women and underrepresented minority students, according to the American Society of Engineering Education and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering has more than 150 interdisciplinary research centers and labs. The College occupies more than a million square feet of research and office space on Georgia Tech’s campus. It had more than $270 million in research expenditures in fiscal year 2019. More than one-third of its undergraduate students participate in research.

As one of the most research-intensive academic institutions in the nation, Georgia Tech is committed to the idea that technology, the science that supports it, the scholarship that guides it, and the leadership that deploys it can help improve the human condition. 

About the Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology is a top 10 public research university with nearly 40,000 students who study in person at the main campus in Atlanta, at Georgia Tech-Lorraine in France, at Georgia Tech-Shenzhen in China, as well as through distance and online learning.

Students represent 50 states and 149 countries. Its engineering and computing Colleges are the largest and among the highest-ranked in the nation, and the Institute also offers outstanding programs in business, design, liberal arts, and sciences. With more than $1 billion annually in research awards across all six Colleges and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Georgia Tech is among the nation’s most research-intensive universities. It is an engine of economic development for the state of Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation.

Georgia Tech’s mission is to develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. Its mission and strategic plan are focused on making a positive impact in the lives of people everywhere. For more than 135 years, the people of Georgia Tech have dared to imagine and then create solutions for a better future. The innovative culture and leadership continue, for Progress and Service for all.

“As we enter our fifth year, we are so pleased with the continued interest and engagement with the Emerging Leaders Program from faculty across the Colleges,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “Since 2016, the program has supported faculty who are passionate about continuing their leadership journey and, in so doing, has promoted a growing culture of leadership at Georgia Tech.”

The fifth cohort reflects many of Georgia Tech’s Schools and Colleges.

College of Computing

• Polo Chau, associate professor, School of Computational Science and Engineering
• Elizabeth Cherry, associate professor, School of Computational Science and Engineering
• Alessandro Orso, professor, School of Computer Science

College of Design

• Baabak Ashuri, associate professor, School of Building Construction

College of Engineering

• Morris Cohen, associate professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Anna Erickson, Woodruff Professor and associate professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
• Karen Feigh, professor, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
• Benjamin Klein, associate professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Yao Xie, Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Early Career Professor and associate professor, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Fumin Zhang, professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

College of Sciences

• David Ballantyne, professor, School of Physics
• Facundo Fernandez, Vasser Woolley Foundation Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry and professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Brian Hammer, associate professor, School of Biological Sciences
• Jake Soper, associate professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

• Karen Head, associate professor, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
• Matthew Oliver, associate professor, School of Economics

The ELP was started in 2016 and is designed for associate and full professors who have attained tenure. The program is a collaboration between the Office of the Provost, the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact, and the Office of Graduate Education and Faculty Development. 

Learn more about the Emerging Leaders Program.

The secretary of the faculty serves as a resource for faculty members and administrators regarding faculty governance. The secretary’s duties include, but are not limited to, keeping and posting minutes and records, accepting Nominating Committee reports from the Faculty Executive Board, conducting elections to fill faculty governance positions, and serving on the Institute Policy Committee.

“I am very pleased to name Rhett Mayor the next secretary of the faculty. He brings with him a deep familiarity with faculty governance and a passion for service and for advancing the mission and vision of the Institute,” said President Cabrera. “Thank you, also, to Jeanne Balsam. Her leadership and dedication over the past few years have been invaluable to Georgia Tech.”

Mayor began at the Institute in Fall 2006 as an assistant professor. Before that, he was the president and CEO of Powerix Technologies and previously was an assistant research scientist with the S.M. Wu Manufacturing Research Center at the University of Michigan.

At Tech, Mayor served as the chair of the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee from 2014 until 2018. In this role, he oversaw the passage of several major curriculum initiatives, including significant revisions to the undergraduate mathematics programs, the new degree program in music, and revisions to Institute guidelines on multidisciplinary minors, many with joint B.S./M.S. programs being offered for the first time. He has also held service-leadership roles in professional societies, including the presidency of the International Institute of Micro Manufacturing.

Mayor says he is thrilled to have the opportunity to serve as the secretary of the faculty. “Effective faculty governance is central to the function and well-being of the Georgia Tech community,” he said. “I am happy to support its success and look forward to getting started.”

The seven Regents Professors are:

Marilyn Brown, Brook Byers Professor in Sustainable Manufacturing in the School of Public Policy

Suresh Sitaraman, Morris M. Bryan Jr. Professor in Mechanical Engineering in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Jeffrey Skolnick, Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair in Computational Systems Biology and GRA Eminent Scholar in the School of Biological Sciences

Prasad Tetali, professor in the School of Mathematics and the School of Computer Science

Vigor Yang, professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Lisa Yaszek, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Ellen Zegura, Stephen Fleming Chair in the School of Computer Science

“Many congratulations to these faculty members as they receive this well-deserved distinction from the Board of Regents,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and the K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “We were proud to nominate them for consideration, and celebrate and honor their continued commitment to teaching, research, and scholarship in service to Georgia Tech and our students.”

Each year, the college deans may nominate two academic faculty members for the Regents Professor title and one research faculty member for the Regents Researcher title. The Georgia Tech Research Institute may nominate two research faculty members for Regents Researcher. The titles are awarded upon approval of the USG chancellor and its Committee on Academic Affairs only with unanimous recommendation of the university’s president, the executive vice president for Research, the chief academic officer, the appropriate academic dean, and three other faculty members.

The BOR approved the nominations during a May 12 meeting (via video). The BOR also approved a change to the Institute’s mission, requested by President Àngel Cabrera and effective May 12, 2020.

The updated mission statement reads: The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university established by the state of Georgia in Atlanta in 1885 and committed to developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.

On Monday, May 11, more than 175 Georgia Tech faculty and staff attended a virtual town hall on Supporting Integrity in Education. A panel of leaders and experts from across the Institute spoke and answered questions on how to foster and strengthen academic integrity in both residential and remote educational environments. They also discussed the Summer Remote Teaching Academy, a resource for faculty learning to teach remote courses or wanting to access tools and training to support those courses.   

The panel, moderated by Michael Toney, director of Academic Administration, included Nelson Baker, dean of Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE); Charles Isbell, dean of the College of Computing; Yakut Gazi, associate dean of Learning Systems at GTPE; David Joyner, executive director of Online Education and OMSCS; Andrew Lawrence, assistant director of the Office of Student Integrity; Kyla Ross, assistant vice provost for Advocacy and Conflict Resolution; Thad Starner, professor in the School of Interactive Computing; and Joyce Weinsheimer, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning.

 “At Georgia Tech, we are emerging from a very difficult time,” said Baker. “We need to have open and honest conversations about what we’ve learned and how we can move forward.”

The spring semester’s unprecedented and rapid transition to remote learning left many professors and instructors facing questions, not the least of which was how to ensure adherence to Georgia Tech’s Honor Code fairly, and from a distance. For many, remote teaching is unfamiliar territory. The impossibility of physical oversight of students, the specter of answer-sharing and homework-for-hire sites, and an array of unfamiliar detection and deterrence technologies have given rise to concerns about academic misconduct.

 Academic Integrity: The National and Local Landscapes

“Transitioning to remote instruction started this conversation, but we need to see that this is not only an online problem,” said Isbell. “The issue of integrity in education is too important for us not to be clear-eyed about what is happening and address it, in whatever ways will improve the education we offer and our reputation in the world.”

David Joyner and Thad Starner opened the discussion on the national landscape of academic integrity. Though the educational environment has undergone a major shift over the past two months, Joyner reflected, the reasons misconduct happens — largely stress and pressure — are essentially the same. “Misconduct is mostly either opportunistic or due to desperation, rather than an advanced intention,” Joyner said.

Andrew Lawrence added that for many residential Georgia Tech students, this was their first experience taking a remote exam or completing an online project — all while most were relocating off campus and finding the resources necessary to finish the semester at home. Even online students who already had experience in the virtual learning environment were grappling with the stresses of illness, job loss, and other issues related to the pandemic. Stressors were high for all students in the spring.

Academic dishonesty can range from small steps to gain an unfair advantage, such as giving a fellow student who hasn’t yet taken the test a tip on one of the questions, to systematic efforts to earn credit with little to no effort. Tutoring or homework-help websites, many of which were originally designed with good intentions, are now multimillion-dollar industries with easily misused services. From answer repositories to assignment sharing to paying a professional to complete a student assignment, cheating is big business.

Combating Academic Dishonesty

Even so, Joyner says that a free-for-all environment isn’t, in his observation, what students want. “Students largely want integrity measures, as long as they do not punish honest students through extra hurdles or false suspicion,” he said. “They want the reputation of their degree and institution to be preserved.” This in turn preserves students’ sense that their hard work will be of value.

There are many ways to prevent and deter academic dishonesty — beginning with intentional pedagogy and course design. New tools and technologies monitor online assignment-sharing sites, detect plagiarism and exam question sharing, and even intervene when students are engaging in potentially risky behavior. They can be used as teaching tools to foster a classroom environment that promotes academic integrity, as preventive mechanisms, and as detectors of potential violations.

Preventing the Problem – Deterrence by Design

Kyla Ross and Joyce Weinsheimer noted that summer courses give faculty the opportunity to proceed much more intentionally than in the spring, laying the groundwork for academic integrity in the first week or two of class.

“Students and faculty both want a positive, respectful, and engaging educational environment,” Ross said. “When setting up your courses, have clear course objectives, evaluation criteria, and any other requirements outlined in your syllabus from day one. Consider what the expectations and boundaries are for your assignments and assessments. Clearly outline everything so there are no surprises.”

Weinsheimer suggested establishing a norm of partnership in your syllabus. Academic dishonesty can be the result of desperation. If students know that you (and your TAs) are available as a resource, they might be less likely to see dishonesty as the only option. “Highlight academic integrity in your syllabus and throughout the term so that it is real to students,” she said. “For example, when exams are taken, have students see and sign the honor code.”

Another way to stave off desperation is to have multiple lower-stakes assessments, either in addition to or instead of a few high-stakes assessments. This gives students opportunities to get feedback on their learning and helps instructors identify gaps in understanding. It also conveys the instructor’s investment in student learning. “When students know we want to help them improve their mastery of the course content, they tend to put their energy into learning,” Weinsheimer said. “Low-stakes assessments become tools that benefit students rather than punish them for not knowing everything yet.”  

Thad Starner recommended having an honor code quiz early in the course, both to outline course expectations and to establish students’ understanding of the parameters of acceptable behavior as they complete assignments and turn in assessments.

Finally, assessments and assignments can be designed so that they are easiest to complete using a working knowledge of the material, and very difficult to complete while referencing only a set of notes or answers. Joyner’s tips for designing this kind of assessment can be found here.

Deterrence by Prevention and Detection

Academic integrity can also be fostered by making detection and deterrence technologies visible throughout the course. If instructors let students know that they are using dishonesty prevention and detection technologies, Joyner said, the perception that “anyone can get away with anything” diminishes and students are less likely to violate the honor code.

Starner identified three tools currently available to instructors: TurnItIn, MOSS, and Gradescope. TurnItIn, a plagiarism detector, can also be used as a teaching tool if students are allowed to see it demonstrated in a lesson. MOSS (Measure of Software Similarity) is a similar tool for programmers. Gradescope is a grading tool with an analytics feature for instructors. Instructors should make it known to students that these tools exist and are in use in their courses.

Respondus Monitor, or digital proctoring, is also available in Summer 2020, though instructors are cautioned that the technology makes certain assumptions about “normal” behaviors and capabilities in students and should therefore be used with care. The Summer Remote Teaching Academy (see below) will cover Respondus, as well as other exam tools and technologies available to faculty.

Starner is also working on new tools, some only available in beta and some still in development — including Examinator 2.0, BELT (BlueJeans codE Leak deTection), and Jack Reacher Watson.

Summary of Strategies and Tips for Supporting an Environment of Integrity:

• Outline clear expectations of conduct in the syllabus. Reinforce these with discussion and/or an honor code quiz in the first week of class.
• Openly discuss expectations for student conduct on assignments and assessments, and highlight the honor code throughout the semester.
• Have students see and sign the honor code before taking exams.
• Encourage students to view you and your TAs as resources and as partners with them in learning.
• Employ more lower-stakes assessments throughout the course, either in addition to or in place of a few high-stakes assessments.
• Design assignments and assessments that are easiest to complete using a working knowledge of the material. For David Joyner’s tips on how to do this, go to https://bit.ly/examtrust.
• Visibly employ deterrence and detection technologies such as Gradescope, MOSS, and TurnItIn in your classroom. Where appropriate, use these technologies as teaching tools.
• Use digital proctoring with care and only when appropriate.

For Faculty: Summer Remote Teaching Academy

The panel also introduced the Summer Remote Teaching Academy, which is now available to all faculty members through Canvas. Yakut Gazi said that about 450 instructors scheduled to teach this summer were automatically enrolled in the academy, and an additional 130 faculty members signed up for the course independently.

The purpose of the course is to support faculty as they rethink their course delivery for an online environment,” Gazi said. “We can assist by matching course needs with the technologies and tools that Georgia Tech has in its online learning ecosystem.” The asynchronous course is available in Canvas to all faculty. To register for the course (if it does not show up in Canvas), request to be added at this website.

The 2020 GT Remote Teaching Academy is a collaborative effort offered by Professional Education, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Office of Information Technology, the Center for 21^st Century Universities, the Library, and the Summer Programs unit of the Office of Undergraduate Education. They have held 10 synchronous sessions and plan to offer more throughout the summer. Registration links for upcoming sessions are below.

“Leslie Sharp has been an outstanding administrator during her time at Georgia Tech and I thank her for her service to the Library over the last year,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “She is a trusted collaborator and leader, and a passionate and compassionate educator. That leadership will be critical as the new dean of the Library and as we realize the full potential of the Library Next initiative.”

Sharp has more than 25 years of administrative experience in both academic and history-related organizations, and has been at Georgia Tech since 2006. Her time here includes service as the assistant dean for Academic Affairs and Outreach for the College of Design and, most recently, as the associate vice provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development, a position she has held since 2013.

As associate vice provost, Sharp has managed operations across the organization, including communications, human resources, finance, and general administration. She also oversaw an expanding organizational mission and operations, including growing personnel and services that offer enhanced graduate student support, professional development for graduate students and postdocs, postdoctoral services, and more intentional faculty development. Additionally, she authored new procedures for the Regents Professor and Researcher processes, resulting in more representative and inclusive practices for nomination, selection, and reappointment, and helped put in place a transparent and consistent promotion path for lecturers and academic professionals, which included adding a principal level to both.

In the role of interim CEO of the Library, Sharp was responsible for overseeing all personnel, financial, and operational decisions. She also began to craft a long-term vision for the human resources, technology, space, and culture of the Library, including strengthening integration of the Library with the academic and research mission of the Institute. 

“I am proud to have served alongside the faculty and staff of the Library over the last year and am honored to be named the next dean of an incredible organization,” said Sharp. “The Library is the true scholarly heart of our community and I am excited to steer the vision of Library Next and continue my work.”

Sharp is a Georgia Tech alumna, earning a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of technology and science, with a doctoral minor in architectural history. She holds a master’s degree from Middle Tennessee State University and a B.A. in history from the University of Georgia.

Sharp was one of four finalists in the search for the next dean of the Library. The search committee was chaired by Jason Freeman, professor and chair in the School of Music. Members of the Office of the Provost who served on the committee included Michael Toney, director of Academic Administration, who served as the search administrative lead, and Mary Thomas, senior program manager. Representatives from outside search firm Isaacson Miller assisted.

“The candidate pool yielded a field of impressive finalists, and I’d like to extend my gratitude to the search committee and the Georgia Tech community for their support and counsel throughout this important search,” said President Ángel Cabrera. “Dr. Sharp’s long and deep history at Georgia Tech make her uniquely suited to lead our Library into a new chapter of partnership with all academic units, service to our learning and research missions, and innovation in how we access and leverage information. I very much look forward to continuing to work with her.”

The surveys are being administered for the Spring 2020 semester in place of the Course Instructor Opinion Survey (CIOS), as the CIOS is not a valid measure of instructor performance under emergency circumstances. The new mechanisms are designed to gather student feedback in a timely manner to allow for real-time course adjustments and to ask questions more appropriate to the remote experience.

“The transition to online learning has been difficult for the entire Georgia Tech community and is a new experience for students and faculty, all while they are navigating other stressors and unknowns at home,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “It’s very important that we hear from students and use their feedback to make adjustments, improve instruction, and address concerns. There will be a lot to be learned from this unexpected experiment in distance education.”

Immediately available are a brief faculty-level survey, available within Canvas Commons, and a short, customizable school-level feedback form built in Qualtrics. Students are also encouraged to engage directly in conversations with instructors about course changes, including any challenges that might come as a result of those changes.

The Institute also plans to develop a survey to solicit broad feedback at the end of the semester. Administered at the end of April, the survey will provide schools and colleges across the Institute with helpful information about how students engaged during the remote learning experience in order to improve Georgia Tech’s response in the future.

More about the available surveys:

The Center for Teaching and Learning has created instructions and assistance-request forms to provide support to faculty and school administrators, as needed.

Detailed instructions for accessing and using the faculty-level survey within Canvas are available at https://ctl.gatech.edu/coursefeedback.

For assistance in customizing the Qualtrics webform to a particular school or college, school administrators may complete an assistance-request form at http://ctl.gatech.edu/keep-teaching/consultation.

“I am delighted that Kaye Husbands Fealing will be the next dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts,” said Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “In her time as school chair, she has proven herself time and time again to be a trusted and accomplished leader, administrator, and scholar. Her wealth of experience will be instrumental in ushering in what I know will be an exciting next chapter for the College.”

Husbands Fealing came to Tech in 2014 from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Before that, she served as a study director at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.  Her career began at Williams College, where she started as assistant professor in the Economics Department and left after 20 years as the William Brough Professor of Economics.

Additionally, she held visiting professorships at Smith College and Colgate University, a research associate position at MIT, and served in several different capacities with the National Science Foundation (NSF) — including program director and science advisor for the Science of Science and Innovation Policy Program, and program liaison with the European Science Foundation.

“I am grateful to be appointed Dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, and I look forward to working with students, staff and faculty as we continue to position ourselves at the forefront of humanities and social sciences in a technology-driven world,” she said

Husbands Fealing brings to the position decades of research expertise in science and innovation policy, the public value of research expenditures, and underrepresentation among underserved groups in STEM fields and jobs.

She also brings decades of service, and is currently a member of the NSF’s Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering and its Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee, as well as working groups within the National Institutes of Health and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

“The changing face of the world that we live in means that to remain relevant, the university must have a broad strategic vision that addresses the needs of all the communities that we serve from the local level to the national and then more broadly to our global footprint,” Husbands Fealing said. “Ivan Allen College stands ready to put our talents and treasure to work for the public good.”

Husbands Fealing was one of three finalists in the dean’s search. The search committee was chaired by Bonnie Ferri, vice provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development. Michael Toney, director of Academic Administration, and Mary Thomas, program manager in the Office of the Provost, provided administrative leadership for the search.

Among her many professional accolades, Husbands Fealing received the 2017 Trailblazer Award from the National Medical Association Council on Concerns of Women Physicians, and has been recognized for outstanding teaching both at Georgia Tech and the University of Minnesota. She is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where she also serves on the executive board.

She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in mathematics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

“Leadership in times of transition can be difficult and requires a collected and steady leader. I’d like to extend my gratitude to Interim Dean John Tone, for his leadership during the last year,” said President Ángel Cabrera. “Thank you, too, to Bonnie Ferri and the search committee for a job well done. I very much look forward to working with Dean Husbands Fealing in finding new ways to deliver on our mission to develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.”