Stoltzfus

Thom-Levy

Professor Rebecca Stoltzfus has been appointed vice provost for undergraduate education for a five-year term effective July 1, Provost Michael Kotlikoff announced May 9. She will oversee initiatives enhancing undergraduate instruction and related programs, in collaboration with academic leaders and units across campus.

Along with Stoltzfus’ appointment, faculty member Julia Thom-Levy has been named to a new position, the provost’s fellow for pedagogical innovation, for a three-year term beginning Aug. 1. Thom-Levy will focus on curriculum and supporting excellence and innovation in teaching, and will work in close collaboration with Stoltzfus as vice provost. Both positions will report to the provost.

“In seeking to advance our pedagogical mission, we are fortunate to be able to draw on the expertise of both Rebecca and Julia,” Kotlikoff said. “Together they will be invaluable assets in creating and supporting initiatives to enhance learning experiences for all Cornell students.”

The vice provost for undergraduate education works closely and in collaboration with deans and academic associate deans of the university’s undergraduate colleges and schools, as well as with the other vice provosts, the Division of Student and Campus Life, and various units on campus affecting undergraduate life at Cornell.

Responsibilities of the position include direct, and in some cases shared, oversight of initiatives designed to enhance undergraduate instruction and to promote an intellectual community in and out of the classroom and the laboratory, including living and learning experiences in student residences.

Major responsibilities also include accreditation issues related to undergraduate education, support and development of academic initiatives such as undergraduate research, online education, academic integrity, and campus efforts to support inclusivity and academic success for all of Cornell’s students.

“I look forward to promoting the excellence of the Cornell undergraduate experience, and am especially pleased to collaborate with Professor Thom-Levy as a leader in pedagogical innovation,” Stoltzfus said. “It’s a privilege to serve such a creative and diverse community of students and educators.”

Stoltzfus is a professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences in the College of Human Ecology. She serves as the provost’s fellow for public engagement and directs the Program in Global Health. Her work has included developing partnerships for international student engagement, and she has led in the design of curricular integration of experiential learning.

Her research focuses on causes and consequences of malnutrition among women and children in developing countries, with ongoing projects in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and India.

She earned her Cornell doctorate in human nutrition in 1992, taught at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for a decade and returned to Cornell in 2002 as associate professor of nutritional sciences. She was promoted to professor in 2005.

Thom-Levy, associate professor of physics, came to Cornell in 2005 and has taught introductory physics as well as laboratory and advanced-topics courses in particle physics. She also directs a research group at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, that includes Cornell postdocs and graduate students. She has mentored students in Cornell’s Research Experience for Undergraduates, Hunter R. Rawlings III Presidential Research Scholars and McNair Scholars programs.

She earned her Ph.D. in 2001 at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and has developed instrumentation and operated detectors at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago, and at CERN.