Update from President-Elect Gilliam on Senior Leadership Team
June 11, 2024
Dear Members of the Boston University Community,
Over the past five months, as president-elect, I have met and spoken with hundreds of you, on campus and around the world. These interactions have been stimulating and insightful. I am impressed by this community, its accomplishments, and future promise. I look forward to continuing these conversations and, in the coming months, will share some of my initial impressions and ideas. In the meantime, I am writing to update you on changes to the University’s senior leadership team as I assume the presidency of Boston University.
Several colleagues will step into new roles within the administration. Gloria Waters will become the University’s next provost and chief academic officer, effective July 1. As provost, Gloria will focus on creating a collaborative, nimble, and proactive provost’s office that will enhance the experience and academic excellence of our faculty and ensure a high-quality experience for all students. For the past 11 years, Gloria has served as vice president and associate provost for research. Under her leadership, sponsored research expenditures increased by more than $200 million. She instituted external reviews of the University-wide research centers, oversaw the restructuring of several of them, and added new centers to the portfolio. She has built a responsive and agile administrative operation focused on advancing the work and careers of our researchers. Gloria is a professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences and served as dean of Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences for eight years. There, she led dramatic increases in the size, quality, and selectivity of the college’s undergraduate and graduate programs, enhancing student and faculty support, and doubling the volume of its research funding.
Thomas Bifano has agreed to serve as interim vice president and associate provost for research. Tom is currently the director of the Boston University Photonics Center, a core facility and academic center of excellence, and he will continue in that role. Under his leadership, the Photonics Center has grown to become one of the preeminent research centers on photonics in the country. A national search for the next vice president and associate provost for research will begin this summer.
I want to extend my deep gratitude and appreciation to Provost Ad Interim Kenneth Lutchen for his steady hand and thoughtful leadership over the past year. He has made an enormous contribution throughout this transition. Ken is an important part of BU’s community and history, as a superb faculty member, an outstanding dean, and a provost ad interim who helped to steer BU through a year of many challenges. I am also pleased that, after stepping down, Ken has agreed to serve as senior advisor to the president, with a focus on strategy and innovation, while serving as faculty in the College of Engineering. Elise Morgan, who took over from Ken at the College of Engineering, will continue as dean ad interim.
Christine Wynne will serve as chief of staff to the president, effective July 1. In this role, Christine will ensure that the president’s office is warm and welcoming and will function as a dynamic hub of resources for the campus community. Christine is an alumna and longtime member of the Boston University community. In her present position as assistant vice president for presidential functions, Christine is responsible for the strategy, production, and execution of institutional and presidential events and the oversight and management of the presidential residence, Sloane House. Each year, Christine programs more than 100 events and works with virtually every school, college, and unit, as well as the University’s community of donors and supporters.
Please join me in welcoming several new people. This summer, we will launch an Office of Strategy and Innovation. The office will support the campus community in developing large-scale projects, building external partnerships, and bringing new ideas to fruition.
To that end, on August 1, Kenneth Olliff will join Boston University as the inaugural senior vice president for strategy and innovation, serving as my primary advisor on matters of strategy, growth, and innovation. Ken brings an important combination of experiences for advancing the University’s strategic vision across academics, research, and external and global engagement. Ken spent 12 years at the University of Chicago, where he rose to associate vice president in the Office of the Vice President for Research and National Labs. There, he was integral in developing and implementing the university’s science and innovation strategies and overseeing its partnership with Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab.
In 2016, he was named vice president for research and partnerships at Saint Louis University. Under his leadership, the university doubled research expenditures, will achieve Carnegie R1 status in 2025, and has positioned the St. Louis region as a national geospatial center of excellence. Ken secured a $50 million gift from Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield to create the Saint Louis University Research Institute, which launched 10 new university-wide, interdisciplinary research institutes and recruited or retained more than 70 outstanding faculty. In addition to building partnerships with St. Louis’ industry and innovation leaders, Ken facilitated a legacy gift to launch the Taylor Geospatial Institute, an eight-university research consortium, the governing council of which he chaired.
Jasmin Patel will join us as the inaugural vice president for strategy and innovation. Jasmin brings expertise in supporting institutional leaders and faculty in developing and launching large-scale initiatives across multiple dimensions of the institution. Jasmin began her career at the University of Chicago, where she held many roles including executive director of Arete, a novel research accelerator that supported administrative leaders and faculty in developing, incubating, and implementing interdisciplinary projects. Jasmin helped conceptualize and develop some of the University of Chicago’s most important programs including the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, and the Institute for Molecular Engineering, which has grown to become the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
In 2016, Jasmin was recruited as associate vice president for research and chief of staff at Saint Louis University, where she led the implementation of the university’s research growth plan. In addition, she oversaw research innovation, computing, and operations. She brings particular expertise in creating interdisciplinary initiatives, building institutional capacity, and developing external strategic partnerships.
Starting August 1, Christopher Sedore will become Boston University’s next vice president and chief information officer, providing strategic leadership and operational expertise for a critical aspect of our infrastructure. Chris will oversee a talented team of more than 400 IT professionals working throughout the University to support our educational and research mission. Chris joins us from Tufts University, where he serves as vice president and chief information officer and oversees a 280-person IT organization. His group covers technology functions at Tufts, including administrative and clinical systems, educational and research technologies, information security, privacy, data strategy, and technology infrastructure. Before arriving at Tufts, Chris served as vice president and chief information officer at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as president and chief executive officer of the New York State Education and Research Network, which provides technology services to research universities and select colleges, museums, libraries, and K-12 entities in New York State.
Please join me in welcoming Gloria, Tom, Christine, Ken, Jasmin, and Chris. I look forward to joining you on July 1.
Sincerely,
Melissa L. Gilliam
President-Elect