Penn filled another administrative vacancy yesterday when Provost Robert Barchi announced that Wharton School professor Janice Bellace would be the University's next associate provost.
The associate provost serves under Barchi, the chief academic officer of the University. Bellace will be responsible for overseeing faculty employment and related issues, as well as gender and minority equity at Penn.
Bellace's "personal skills, past experience, depth of knowledge of the institution and its governance and her sensitivity in handling complex confidential issues," made her stand out in the search, Barchi said in an e-mail interview.
Bellace's "roots are at Penn," according to fellow Legal Studies professor Thomas Dunfee. "She's been a leader at Penn since she was in her 20s," he added.
Bellace said she will focus on employment equity at Penn, ensuring that both women and minorities are appropriately represented across the University.
"The faculty are the intellectual core of the University," Bellace said. However, she noted that "resources" will be her main challenge as she takes on her new responsibilities.
Penn is "not as well-endowed as some of our competitors," Bellace said. "We have to be smarter about how we deploy faculty and how we support them."
Bellace's knowledge of Penn on many levels will allow her to balance the demands of the University with the needs of students and faculty, she said.
"She knows this place," said Kenneth Shropshire, chairman of the Legal Studies Department. In addition to being a professor who consistently receives "great evaluations" from students, Bellace "has the skills and talent to be a top-level administrator," Shropshire added.
Bellace replaces School of Nursing professor Barbara Lowery, who died of cancer in October of 2002. Physics professor emeritus Walter Wales has served as interim associate provost since Lowery's death. Bellace's selection comes at the end of a search that began in September 2003.
Bellace began her career at Penn as a student in the College for Women. After graduating in 1971, she received a degree from Penn's School of Law in 1974 and a master's degree from the London School of Economics in 1975.
Bellace returned to Penn as a faculty member when she was appointed to the Legal Studies Department in 1979. She later became Wharton's undergraduate dean in 1990, leaving the post in 1994 to become Wharton's deputy dean. Bellace's academic experience also includes serving as the founding president of Singapore Management University.
