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In the episode, Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert, provost at the University of the Pacific, talks about making the transition from faculty member to chief academic officer, " People are coachable and can develop their skills if they are interested in doing it."

Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert, Ph.D, B.A.

Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert serves as Provost at the University of the Pacific, a position she began in July 2023. Before joining Pacific as Provost, Gretchen served for six years as associate dean of the faculty at Scripps College, one of the five Claremont Colleges in southern California. Most recently she served for 15 months as acting vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Scripps College. She also has extensive experience working across all five of the Claremont schools, including serving as faculty
director of the Claremont Faculty Leadership Program. A molecular biologist who earned a Ph.D. from Weill Medical College of Cornell University/Sloan-Kettering Institute and a B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College, she was a biology professor on the faculties of Scripps, Pitzer, and Claremont McKenna and is a tenured faculty member in biology at the University of the Pacific. Gretchen was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Warsaw Institute for Genetics and Biotechnology in Poland in 2018-2019, where she has an ongoing research collaboration.
Resources:
Faculty to Administration, Making the Transition (July 2014) by Dr. Joann Bangs, Higher Ed Jobs
Reframing Academic Leadership (2009) Lee G. Bolman and Joan V. Gallos
The Balancing Acts of Academic Leadership: A Guide for Department Chairs and Deans (2021) by Jeanne A. K. Hey
From Colleague to Chair, Department to Dean: Faculty Members in Leadership Positions (June 2022) by Robert A. Scott, Higher Ed Jobs