Dr. Karen M. Gil, Lee G. Pedersen Distinguished Professor of Psychology and professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be recommended to the Board of Trustees as the next dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
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Dr. Karen M. Gil, Lee G. Pedersen Distinguished Professor of Psychology and professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be recommended to the Board of Trustees as the next dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Chancellor Holden Thorp and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bernadette Gray-Little selected Gil, who twice has served as senior associate dean in the college, for the post following the deliberations of an advisory search committee that conducted a national search. Trustees are expected to consider the recommendation from Thorp later this month. The recommended appointment date is July 1, 2009.
“The University is fortunate to have someone with Karen Gil’s impressive credentials and stature as a candidate to head our University’s largest and oldest academic unit,” Gray-Little said. “With her background as a faculty member, researcher and administrator within the College of Arts and Sciences, she is ideally suited to lead our faculty, staff and students in addressing future challenges, both on our campus and around the world.”
A UNC faculty member since 1995, Gil also serves as the senior associate dean for social sciences and international programs in the college. She oversees all of the college’s social sciences departments, as well as its international programs based in the FedEx Global Education Center. Gil previously served as chair of the department of psychology from 2004 to 2007 and senior associate dean for undergraduate education in the college from 2001 to 2004.
Bruce Carney, Samuel Baron Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy and senior associate dean for the sciences, has served as interim dean since last July when Thorp, the previous dean, became chancellor.
“Bruce Carney is a true citizen of the University and one of the college’s strongest advocates,” Gray-Little said. “The Carolina community is grateful to him for stepping into this crucial role and keeping the college moving forward during the search process.”
Gil, a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society of Behavioral Medicine, has been the author of numerous publications on health psychology, acute and chronic pain, stress and coping, and childhood medical illness.
She received a doctorate in clinical psychology from West Virginia University in 1985 and a bachelor of arts degree in psychology with highest honors from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1978. Before coming to UNC, she was a faculty member at Duke University for a decade.
The College of Arts and Sciences forms the core of the University’s emphasis on a sound liberal-arts education. All undergraduates spend their first two years in the college within a curriculum of requirements and electives that span the arts and sciences. More than 70 percent of undergraduates choose their major field of studies in the college and about 22 percent of all graduate and professional students are in the college – the largest percentage of graduate students at the University.
Web links:
http://college.unc.edu/
University Relations contact, Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu
College of Arts and Sciences contact, Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339, dee_reid@unc.edu