Release date: Jan. 12, 2006
Contact: Elaine Justice at 404-727-0643 or elaine.justice@emory.edu

Emory Names Tedesco Dean of Graduate School of Arts And Sciences

Lisa Tedesco, former vice president and secretary of the University of Michigan, has been named dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Emory University following a national search. Tedesco, who is currently a visiting fellow at Columbia University's Center for Community Health Partnerships, will begin her tenure May 1, says Emory Provost Earl Lewis, who announced the appointment.

"Lisa is someone with an extraordinary breadth of administrative experience: She's been the academic dean of a school, secretary of one of the major research universities in the country and interim provost," says Lewis. "She is equipped to help us think very hard about graduate education and a number of issues Emory will address in the near future."

An accomplished scholar and administrator, Tedesco has been a member of the faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, since 1992, when she became associate dean of its dental school. She was named university secretary in 1998, and served as interim provost in 2001. During her dental school tenure, the school implemented a doctoral program and instituted significant changes in curriculum, pedagogy and interdisciplinary research.

"We're excited that Lisa Tedesco comes to us from a place that has such a strong, effective graduate school model," says Emory President James Wagner. "She has administrative experience at the highest levels of a university as well as academic experience. Those are factors that will help her be a real leader in moving our graduate school forward."

Tedesco is the author of 69 peer reviewed articles, one book, two monographs and 12 book chapters. A former president of the American Association of Dental Schools, she is widely known as a social science health educator concerned with health disparities, curriculum reform and diversity in the health care workforce. She serves on an Institute of Medicine committee addressing workforce diversity, and is a member of the Sullivan Alliance to Transform America's Health Professions.

Tedesco was a faculty member at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1981 to 1992. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Bridgeport, a master's in education from SUNY-Buffalo and Ph.D. in educational psychology from Buffalo. Tedesco has held grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Dental Research and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, among other agencies.

"In addition to Lisa's broad academic experience, intellectual breadth and administrative skills, she is a delightful colleague, which I know from experience," says Lewis, who worked with Tedesco when he was vice provost for academic affairs/graduate studies at Michigan. "I think others will find her imaginative, cooperative and effective, key elements of successful leadership."

Tedesco, whose academic title includes being vice provost for academic affairs-graduate studies, also will be a professor with the university's Rollins School of Public Health, and an associated faculty member with Emory College's Division of Educational Studies.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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