December 3, 2021
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Dear Colleagues:
I am pleased to announce that Professor Linda Adler-Kassner has been appointed Associate Vice Chancellor of Teaching and Learning. As Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Letters and Science, Director of the Center for Innovative Teaching, Research, and Learning (CITRAL), Accreditation Liaison for Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WASC), and Co-Chair of Council on Assessment Committee, Professor Adler-Kassner has increasingly taken on important campus-wide responsibilities. She has played a major leadership role in designing and implementing our undergraduate student success initiatives, including the $5 million Department of Education grant that was the first Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) award received by the campus. Since March 2020, she has worked very closely with Instructional Development to support excellence in both remote and in-person pedagogy, including co-facilitating the Redesigning Instruction for the Student Experience (RISE) Institute. AVC Adler-Kassner is also PI for a $1,600,000 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation “Engaging Humanities Initiative” grant to rethink undergraduate curricula, and she has consulted on numerous undergraduate STEM curricular initiatives. This title recognizes her many campus-wide responsibilities and activities.
AVC Adler-Kassner’s previous service includes appointments as Co-Acting Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Letters of Science; and Director of the Writing Program, which received the Conference on College Composition and Communication Certificate of Excellence while she was Director. A past President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and Past Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, AVC Adler-Kassner is a nationally-recognized Professor of Writing Studies whose research has been recognized with national awards. She also received the UC Santa Barbara Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award.
As Associate Vice Chancellor of Teaching and Learning, Professor Adler-Kassner will continue to work closely and collaborate with Interim Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Undergraduate Education Michael Miller, as well as the other campus deans, and department chairs and faculty. Chancellor Yang and I are grateful for AVC Adler-Kassner’s continued service to the campus and we all look forward to working with her. Thank you.
David Marshall
Executive Vice Chancellor