Appointment of Emily Rothman as the Assistant Provost for General Education

From Amie Grills, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Affairs

This spring, we announced an internal search to identify a new assistant provost for general education. We sought candidates who would bring intellectual leadership, strategic vision, and collaborative focus to the University-wide undergraduate general education program, the BU Hub. After a rigorous search, I am pleased to announce Dr. Emily Rothman has been appointed assistant provost for general education as of July 1, 2026.

Dr. Rothman is a widely published and internationally recognized expert in violence and injury prevention research and autism research at the Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. Receiving over $9M in federal and foundation funding, her scholarship has appeared in leading journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Pediatrics, and the American Journal of Public Health. Outside of her research, she has designed and taught courses across disciplines, developed innovative curricula, and earned multiple awards for her teaching.

In addition to her teaching and scholarship, Dr. Rothman brings extensive leadership experience to this role, having held several academic and administrative positions throughout her extensive career at Boston University. Most recently, she served as chair of the Occupational Therapy department and associate dean for strategic initiatives, where she worked closely with faculty and college leadership to strengthen graduate and undergraduate programs, cultivate experiential learning opportunities, and encourage innovation in the classroom.

Dr. Rothman has also helped to shape the academic experience at BU more broadly through her service as chair of the University Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure Committee; faculty representative to the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees; and member of the most recent Provost Search Advisory Committee. Her leadership within Sargent, combined with her cross-cutting work on these committees, has given her a deep knowledge of the undergraduate experience at BU and the needs of a large general education program, both of which position her to identify and create opportunities for future growth and improvement.

During extensive conversations about her aspirations for the BU Hub, it quickly became clear that Dr. Rothman’s scholarly credentials, proven leadership record, experience in interdisciplinary curriculum development, and passion for general education made her the ideal candidate to take on the assistant provost role. In addition, Dr. Rothman has demonstrated her ability to form action-oriented coalitions across BU and create alignment between diverse stakeholder groups –– key attributes for leading a complex and wide-reaching general education program at a major research university.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Rothman as she takes on this new role. Please also join us in thanking Dr. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, who previously served as the assistant provost for general education, for her exemplary intellectual leadership and dedication to general education at BU.

Finally, I would like to express gratitude to the dedicated faculty and staff from across the university who participated in assessing candidates for this position. We look forward to building on the impressive development and execution of the BU Hub moving forward.