Amanda Godley Named Vice Provost for Graduate Studies

June 29, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

With Nathan Urban’s decision to transition from Pitt to Lehigh University, we engaged in an internal search to identify the next Vice Provost for Graduate Studies.

After much consideration and a highly competitive process, I am very pleased to announce that Amanda Godley has been named Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, effective July 1, 2020.

Amanda has been a part of the University of Pittsburgh family for 18 years. In that time, she has led various professional development, recruitment, mentoring and diversity programs both within and outside Pitt.

She serves as a Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Leading in the School of Education with secondary appointments in the Department of Linguistics and the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program. She is also a faculty fellow in the Center for Urban Education and the Honors College, and a center associate at the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC).

During her time at Pitt, Amanda has held several leadership positions, including Associate Chair of the Department of Instruction and Learning, where she was responsible for mentoring junior faculty, chairing various departmental committees, writing new departmental policies, and handling student grievances. She has also served as Chair of the School of Education Promotion and Tenure, Academic Affairs, and PhD Committees.

Of special note, Amanda was one of the designers of the School of Education’s first online master’s program in English Education. In addition, Amanda co-authored the Provost's Advisory Committee on Instructional Excellence’s recommendations for faculty diversity programs and the University Council of Graduate Students’ graduate student parental accommodation policy.

I have been deeply impressed by Amanda’s firm belief that the strength and development of our faculty and our students is integral to the strength and development of the University as a whole. Her collaborations with academic units across Pitt in faculty and student development, mentoring and diversity have greatly enhanced cross-campus networking and sharing of ideas.

Amanda’s research is focused on improving instructional quality and equity at the college and high school levels, and thus directly relates to educational excellence and innovation. She pursues three strands of research: dialect diversity and inclusion in the classroom, high-quality classroom discussions, and peer review and revision of writing. She studies the experiences of linguistically diverse students and developed a curriculum that provides accurate and effective instructional strategies for teaching students and instructors about the valuable diversity of the English language. Amanda has led numerous educational workshops on this topic for school districts, national professional development organizations, and universities.

With support from the National Science Foundation and the federal Department of Education Institute for Education Sciences, Amanda has collaborated with faculty from computer science, psychology, and law to identify features of high-quality classroom talk and academic writing instruction. She has also developed innovative educational approaches by leveraging Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to build computer-based systems to improve instruction in these areas for diverse groups of learners.

Amanda’s capacity to build relationships and work with a wide variety of colleagues and stakeholders is also reflected in her work with local communities and schools to support underserved groups, such as refugee and immigrant students in the Pittsburgh area. This year, she was part of a university-community partnership that was honored with a Partnership of Distinction Award from the Senior Vice Chancellor for Engagement for educational enrichment for refugee and immigrant communities.

Amanda holds an MA and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, both in Language, Literacy and Culture. She also holds a BA from the University of Chicago in Classics and Great Books.

I want to acknowledge and thank the search committee for its dedicated work—chaired by Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Joseph McCarthy.

Please join me in welcoming Amanda to the Office of the Provost.

Best,
Ann

Ann E. Cudd
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor

Professor of Philosophy
University of Pittsburgh