Dear Pacificans,

I am delighted to report that today we are welcoming Dr. Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert of Scripps College to the Pacific family as our next Executive Vice President and Provost.

Dr. Edwalds-Gilbert served for six years as associate dean of the faculty at Scripps College, the No. 2 academic post at the all-women’s liberal arts college, one of the five Claremont Colleges in southern California. Most recently she served for 15 months as acting vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, the college’s top academic post.

She also has extensive experience working across all five of the Claremont schools, including serving as faculty director of the Claremont Faculty Leadership Program. A molecular biologist who earned a Ph.D. from Weill Medical College of Cornell University/Sloan-Kettering Institute and a B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College, she also serves as a biology professor on the faculties of Scripps College, Pitzer College and Claremont McKenna College. She is a visiting scientist at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Warsaw Institute for Genetics and Biotechnology in Poland.

You can read more about Dr. Edwalds-Gilbert here. She will start July 1. If you would like to reach out and send a personal welcome to our new academic leader, you can email her at gedwalds@yahoo.com.

I want to thank our extraordinary search committee who worked tirelessly on this critically important search. Please join me in thanking our dynamic duo of co-chairs – Vice President Maria Blandizzi and Dugoni Professor Paul Subar, the immediate past chair of Academic Council. They were magnificent in guiding this complex search. And to each of our search committee members who were devoted to the process from beginning to end. They are:

• Elisa Anders, associate provost and chief of staff
• Randy Bass, alumnus, Regent and chair of the Regents Academic Affairs Committee
• Irene Camy, director of cooperative education, School of Engineering and Computer Science
• Lydia Fox, associate professor, College of the Pacific
• Patrick Langham, professor, Conservatory of Music
• Jiancheng Liu, professor, School of Engineering and Computer Science
• Justin Low, associate professor, Benerd College
• Charles Moses, dean, Eberhardt School of Business
• Nader Nadershahi, vice provost and dean, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry
• Nassrine Noureddine, associate program director, School of Health Sciences
• John Sprankling, professor, McGeorge School of Law
• Deepti Vyas, professor, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy
• Angel Zhong, president, ASuop

And last but certainly not least, we will be holding a series of celebrations honoring the many contributions of Maria Pallavicini, who served this university so well for the past 12 years as Provost and Interim President. Maria’s final day will be Commencement Day, May 13. We will have the opportunity to celebrate Maria and her many achievements on all three campuses over the next few months. The university-wide celebration for Maria will be April 25 starting at 4 p.m. at the DeRosa University Center (details to come).

In the meantime, please join me in thanking Maria and welcoming Gretchen!

Sincerely,

Christopher Callahan
President