Announcements

Charlotte’s Master of Public Administration program has surged to its best national ranking ever, reaching No. 46 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings for 2023-24, up from No. 60 just four years ago. With the latest rankings, the nationally accredited program is the #2 ranked public affairs program at a public North Carolina university and the #3 ranked public affairs program in North Carolina.

Heather Smith, professor of geography, interim chair of the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences and Levine Scholars faculty fellow, has been appointed faculty director of the Levine Scholars Program, effective July 1, 2023. She succeeds Diane Zablotsky, who will return as a faculty member to the Department of Sociology.

Pinku Mukherjee, who currently is the Irwin Belk Distinguished Professor for Cancer Research and associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, will serve as the interim associate provost and dean of the Graduate School effective Jan. 3, 2023, succeeding Tom Reynolds, who will retire after 40 years of service to the institution. 

Beth Whitaker, a professor of political science, is interim divisional dean for the humanities and social and behavioral sciences within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. In fall 2021, the University announced it would launch a review of the structure of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

A new academic division of four STEM departments will form within CLAS in January 2023, led by Interim Divisional Dean Bernadette Donovan-Merkert. The division’s creation will address needs the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Mathematics and Statistics, and Physics and Optical Science have expressed for identity, advocacy and research support. Meanwhile, study of the college's structure will continue over the next 10 months.