Jennifer Linderman, associate dean for graduate education in the College of Engineering, has been named director of ADVANCE, the University of Michigan program designed to improve the campus environment for faculty members and to support diversity and faculty success.
She will take over Sept. 1 from ADVANCE founding director Abigail Stewart, who will return to the faculty. Stewart is the Sandra Schwartz Tangri Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies.
In announcing the leadership change, Sara Blair, vice provost for academic and faculty affairs, said she was confident Linderman would “continue the tradition of engaged, forward-looking leadership for which ADVANCE has become known across our campus and well beyond it.
“Jennifer’s service as ADVANCE’s director for the College of Engineering, and her close involvement in both signature programs and new initiatives, superbly position her to lead ADVANCE in the next phase of its work and to respond to emerging challenges around institutional equity, climate, and faculty success,” Blair said.
Linderman said she was thrilled to lead a program she has been so involved with on campus.
“I am deeply honored to be selected to lead this program that is so important to the recruitment, retention and development of faculty leaders. ADVANCE is immensely important to our campus,” she said.
Linderman, a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, has served as ADVANCE director for CoE since 2013. She joined the U-M faculty in 1989 and has risen through the engineering college’s ranks.
She earned her doctorate in chemical and biomedical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include receptor-mediated cell behavior, G protein coupled receptors, signal transduction, computational biology, immunology, cell and tissue engineering, systems biology and tuberculosis.
She was recognized with a College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award in 1997 and became a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2000.
Initially focusing on institutional transformation with respect to women faculty in science and engineering fields, ADVANCE has expanded to address necessary institutional changes to support the needs of a diverse faculty across the campus. The work of ADVANCE falls into four general areas:
• Recruitment: Development and use of equitable faculty recruiting practices.
• Retention: Pre-emptive strategies to prevent the loss of valued faculty.
• Climate: Improvement of departmental climate for faculty, staff and students.
• Leadership: Development of leadership skills that allow academic leaders to encourage positive departmental climates.
