Adriana Galván Appointed Dean of Undergraduate Education

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Adriana Galván as dean of undergraduate education, effective July 1, 2020.

A member of the UCLA faculty since 2008, Dr. Galván is professor of psychology, holds the Wendell Jeffrey and Bernice Wenzel Term Chair in Behavioral Neuroscience, and is the director of the Developmental Neuroscience Lab at UCLA. She is a faculty affiliate of the UCLA Brain Research Institute and the UCLA Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program, and is an executive committee member of the UCLA Staglin Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and co-director of the NICHD T32 Predoctoral Training Program in Adolescent Brain and Behavioral Development.

In addition to serving on the Department of Psychology’s executive committee and academic personnel review committee, and as chair of the department’s 2018 strategic planning committee, she has been actively involved in the UCLA Academic Senate, having served on the executive committee, the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools, and the Undergraduate Council — mostly recently as the council’s chair from 2019 to 2020. She is also a member of the Life Sciences Diversity Advisory Committee and was on the University of California Committee on Educational Policy.

Professor Galván’s research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and numerous private foundations, focuses on adolescent brain development and behavior, particularly in the domains of learning, motivation, and decision-making. She is a board member and on the leadership team of the Center for the Developing Adolescent, a standing member of the NIH Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Study Section, and a consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She has been a member of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Russell Sage Foundation Biological and Social Sciences Working Group, and the Society for Research on Adolescence Interdisciplinary Committee. She has also served as amicus curiae for numerous U.S. Supreme Court cases pertaining to youth behavior and development.

Professor Galván has received many honors and awards, including the APA Boyd McCandless Early Career Award, the William T. Grant Scholars Award, the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Award from the UCLA Psychology Department, the 2016 APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions, the 2016 Cognitive Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award, and the 2019 Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences, and was named a Network Scholar of the MacArthur Foundation Research on Law and Neuroscience. In 2018, she was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Barcelona and in 2019 she was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering. She earned her B.A. in neuroscience and behavior at Barnard College, Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Cornell University.

I want to thank the search/advisory committee members for assembling an outstanding pool of candidates and for their roles in recruiting Adriana. Jayathi Y. Murthy, the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, was the committee chair. Other members were:

• Simon Board – professor of economics
• Troy Carter – professor of physics
• Andrew J. Fuligni – professor-in-residence of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences
• Michael Hackett – professor of theater; associate dean for student affairs, School of Theater, Film and Television
• Caroline Streeter – associate professor of English and of African American studies
• Dominic Thomas – professor of French and Francophone studies; chair, departments of French and Francophone studies, Germanic languages, Italian, and Scandinavian
• Blaire Van Valkenburgh – distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology

I also want to recognize and thank Patricia Turner for her distinguished leadership of the Division of Undergraduate Education since 2013.

Chancellor Block and I are confident that undergraduate education will continue to thrive under Adriana’s capable leadership. Please join me in congratulating her and welcoming her to this new role.

Sincerely,

Emily A. Carter
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost