Dear Colleagues:
We are delighted to announce that Shelome Gooden has been appointed Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in the Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Related Fields, effective September 1, held jointly with her new appointment as Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Leadership Development.
Shelome is an accomplished scholar and national leader in linguistics and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Research. She brings extensive experience in faculty leadership, research development and mentoring to these roles. At Pitt she has contributed to University-wide initiatives through her roles as a Faculty Fellow in the Office of the Provost, as Chair of the Department of Linguistics, and as the Research of Impact co-chair for the Plan for Pitt.
As Pitt’s first-ever Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research in this area, she has built a body of work that has earned Pitt national recognition. She is a 2022 Research Leader Fellow of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Council on Research (APLU COR). In 2023, she cofounded the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Research Leaders Network, now spanning more than 40 institutions across the US, and she now co-leads APLU COR’s working group on “Championing Humanities and Social Sciences.”
As Associate Vice Chancellor, Shelome will continue to lead this work while expanding our institutional capacity to support humanities, arts and social science research: building seed funding and proposal development support for faculty, strengthening our national leadership in this space and ensuring that these areas of scholarship continue to be recognized as a vital, high-impact part of our research enterprise.
This role also reflects something new for Pitt: Shelome will simultaneously take on a joint role as Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Leadership Development.
As Associate Vice Provost, Shelome will work with John Wallace, Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Leadership Development (FALD), and FALD staff to advance three core areas. She will focus on faculty advancement, including support for tenure, promotion and research success; leadership development, to include preparation and support for department chairs; and elevating and celebrating, which will expand recognition of faculty achievements through awards, honors and other forms of scholarly distinction.
This dual appointment lets us connect research development directly to faculty development, ensuring that as we advance research capacity for faculty, we are harnessing the same infrastructure that supports faculty across their careers at Pitt. This work is essential to building a stronger University, and Shelome’s experience and perspective will be valuable assets as we continue this effort.
Please join us in congratulating Shelome on these new roles and in welcoming the expanded impact she will bring to Pitt.
Sincerely,
Joseph J. McCarthy, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor
Rob A. Rutenbar, Senior Vice Chancellor for Research