Category: Leaders
New Director for the Hariri Institute for Computing
On July 1, Ioannis Paschalidis became the new director of the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering. Paschalidis, a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Engineering and of computing and data sciences, will oversee the institute’s move into a new, eye-arresting building (the largest on the Charles River Campus), the Center for Computing & Data Sciences. Paschalidis replaces Eric Kolaczyk, who is leaving BU after almost a quarter of a century.
LAW Clinical Professor Awarded Metcalf Cup and Prize
Constance A. Browne wins the 2022 Metcalf Cup and Prize. She teaches in the Civil Litigation & Justice Program clinic, supervising students as they represent low-income clients in unemployment, disability, housing, and other cases through Greater Boston Legal Services. The winner receives the University’s top honor and $10,000.
BU’s Innovator of the Year Uses History to Shape Future
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Selim Ünlü is named Boston University’s 2021 Innovator of the Year. He relays the importance of science history to students, adding context to the advanced technology students use today and illustrating the impact of iterative innovation.
Veteran Educator and Philanthropist Joins Board of Trustees
M. Lee Pelton, who spent almost half a century in higher education, capped by the presidencies of two schools, has been elected to BU’s Board of Trustees for a two-year term. Pelton has been president and CEO of the Boston Foundation, a philanthropy with $1.6 billion in assets supporting nonprofits, companies, and donors in greater Boston.
Board of Trustees Appoints New Chair and New Member
Ahmass Fakahany (Questrom’79), founder and CEO of Manhattan-based Altamarea Group, will lead the Boston University Board of Trustees beginning in September 2022, succeeding Kenneth Feld (Questrom’70). The board also welcomed new trustee Kenneth Lin (CAS’98), founder and CEO of the personal finance website Credit Karma, who was elected in September.
Wheelock’s Interim Leader, David Chard, Appointed New Dean
David Chard, who led Wheelock College of Education & Human Development as interim dean since the merger of BU’s School of Education and Wheelock College, has been appointed dean of the college. “Lucy Wheelock viewed education as a path to a better society,” Chard says of the 19th-century early education pioneer who founded what became Wheelock College. “BU Wheelock College will be at the vanguard of this important work.”
Sujin Pak Appointed New Dean of the School of Theology
Sujin Pak is the new dean of the School of Theology, the oldest United Methodist Church seminary in the United States. Pak hopes to focus on LGBTQIA+ inclusion, visibility for STH faculty’s academic and social justice work, and silver linings taken from remote learning.
New Trustees Committee on Diversity and Inclusion
The Board of Trustees has created a new Diversity and Inclusion Committee to further the University’s antiracism agenda. The committee’s creation comes in a year of racial introspection for the University, and the country.
BU Creates Senior Diversity Post, Taps Longtime Trustee
President Robert A. Brown announced that Andrea Taylor will relinquish her seat on the Board of Trustees and start her new position as BU’s first senior diversity officer on August 17. Her new post is a leadership position, reporting directly to the president, who, in collaboration with other University leaders, will advance an agenda of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Ibram X. Kendi to Join BU and Launch BU Antiracism Center
One of the nation’s leading scholars and historians of racism will join Boston University’s faculty on July 1 and launch the BU Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi, 37, is the author of the 2019 best-selling book How To Be an Antiracist. He won the National Book Award in 2016 for Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. The new center will foster collaborations across the University; build multidisciplinary problem-centered research teams, and collect, organize, and utilize data on racial inequity.
