Danell named interim dean of ECU’s Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences
Allison Danell (ECU Photo by Cliff Hollis)
Dr. Allison Danell, associate professor of chemistry, has been appointed interim dean of East Carolina University’s Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences (THCAS) effective July 1, pending approval by the UNC Board of Governors.
Danell joined ECU’s faculty in 2004. She received her Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Truman State University in 1996 and her doctorate from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2001, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Rowland Institute at Harvard. She will be promoted to the rank of professor effective Aug. 16.
She has been director of undergraduate studies for several years in the Department of Chemistry and served as interim department chair in 2014-2015. She also was the lead principal investigator on the $1.1 million Golden LEAF Foundation grant awarded to start the Pharmaceutical Development Center at ECU with the goal of designing and building a laboratory-based education and training network.
“I am so pleased that Dr. Danell has accepted this key leadership role at ECU,” said Provost Ron Mitchelson. “The Harriot College of Arts and Sciences is central to our mission of student success and regional transformation. Allison has illustrated her commitment to both of those dimensions as a superior teacher, an engaged scholar (pharmaceutical science and industry), and an important partner in ECU’s Finish in Four initiative. She has my complete confidence.”
Danell is an analytical chemist with expertise in mass spectrometry, which she uses to identify and characterize biomolecules and their complexes. She especially enjoys mentoring student researchers and managing projects across interdisciplinary boundaries.
“I am honored that Provost Mitchelson has asked me to step into this leadership role,” she said. “As a professor and program director, I have always felt that ECU’s Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences is critically important to our identity as a university. I look forward to facilitating and promoting all that our faculty, staff and students create and discover each day.”
She will oversee the largest college at ECU, with nearly 5,500 declared undergraduate majors. THCAS encompasses 54 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in 16 academic departments.
Danell will succeed Dr. William Downs, who served as dean for five years and was recently named the 13th president of Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs.
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