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Dean for Research and Graduate Education

The role of the new Dean for Research and Graduate Education (DRGE) is to oversee and implement the Dean/CEO's research policy and to assume responsibility for the strategic planning and quality control of research and graduate education throughout the BSD. In this capacity, the DRGE advocates for the academic missions of ALL faculty in the BSD; promotes policies to engage faculty in academic decision-making; and works to ensure that governance practices pertaining to faculty throughout the BSD and the University of Chicago Medical Center are consistent with the core values of the University. A major goal is to ensure that ALL faculty in the BSD, regardless of department affiliation, have equal and effective advocacy for their respective academic missions.

In an effort to broadly engage BSD faculty in governance and decision-making processes, we have re-instituted the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) . The 13 member committee works with the DRGE to identify and address the most pressing issues that affect our academic missions. To date, we have identified five areas of focus and constituted RAC sub-committees (one or more RAC members and ad hoc faculty) to evaluate each area and to prepare recommendations to the DRGE and Dean/CEO. The current RAC sub-committees are: Graduate Education, Research Informatics, Budget, Core Facilities, and Academic Advocacy in the New Hospital Pavilion.

To further engage a broad representation of our faculty, and to help ensure transparency in our governance and decision-making practices, we have implemented a new BSD Faculty Advisory Committee . Elections were held in February and March of 2010 to elect six members each from the following faculty groups: Research Scholars, Clinical Scholars, and Academic Clinicians.

A major goal of the DRGE is to support the Dean/CEO in building and sustaining programs of academic excellence that span all aspects of our research and education missions. We are currently laying plans to engage faculty in a Division-wide effort to evaluate our research, education, and training efforts, and to work with BSD leadership in the development of a dynamic, Long-Term Academic Strategy. The purpose of this transparent and inclusive process will be to establish priorities for the future development of research and education throughout the BSD.

• In addition, we have been working with the Basic and Clinical Department Chairs on a number of key Faculty Recruitments and retentions.
• Following the recommendations of three independent faculty committees that met throughout 2009, we have implemented major changes to revitalize the Office of Graduate Affairs, the administrative component of our graduate education mission.
• In response to a comprehensive and inclusive faculty evaluation and strategic planning effort throughout 2009 to organize and build the Neurosciences across divisions at the University of Chicago, we have re-constituted a Neuroscience Institute Steering Committee.
• We are also working with the President of the University of Chicago Medical Center to ensure that the multi-million dollar Phoenix Project (to convert paper medical records to electronic health records) takes the appropriate steps so that BSD researchers will be able to access, query, and integrate experimental data with the vast stores of clinical data from the UCMC system (Research Informatics).

The purpose of this website is to keep faculty informed of the work we are doing in the Dean's office and to provide a forum for faculty input and feedback. By clicking on Faculty Input, you can send a message directly to DRGE and staff. We will try to answer all queries within three days. You can also use this site to communicate with members of the RAC, the RAC sub-committees, the FAC, and other ad hoc committees.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Conrad

T. Conrad Gilliam, PhD
Dean for Research and Graduate Education
Marjorie I. and Bernard A. Mitchell Professor, Department of Human Genetics
Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine of the University of Chicago