December 17, 2020

Dear Members of Our Campus Community,
 
After five and one half years of dedicated service and extraordinary leadership, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel Alison Butler has decided to return to full-time research, teaching, and service.
 
Following the recommendation of the Search Advisory Committee and consultation with Academic Senate and administrative colleagues, Executive Vice Chancellor David Marshall and I are pleased to announce that Professor Dana Mastro has agreed to serve as Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel, effective January 4, 2021.
 
Dr. Mastro is currently Professor of Communication and Associate Dean of the College of Creative Studies. She joined our faculty in 2012 after serving on the faculty at the University of Arizona and at Boston College. She has extensive experience with Academic Personnel policy and processes, having been a member, Vice Chair, and Chair of the Academic Senate’s Committee on Academic Personnel (CAP). Among other leadership roles, Dr. Mastro served as Vice Chair of the Department of Communication from 2015 to 2019, as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Chicano Studies Institute since 2014 and currently serves as Chair, and has additionally served the Senate on committees such as the Council on Research and Instructional Resources.
 
A scholar of media psychology and intergroup communication, Professor Mastro’s research focuses on understanding media effects processes related to racial and ethnic stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. She teaches classes on media and stereotyping, media theory, media effects, and media and race/ethnicity. She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association, and a recipient of our Academic Senate’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2019 as well as the National Communication Association’s Teaching and Mentoring Award in 2015, among other national and international awards for papers and articles.
 
I want to express my deep thanks to our Search Advisory Committee, chaired by Professor Tresa Pollock, for devoting their time, energy, and wisdom to this critical search. The members of the committee are listed below.
 
We are deeply grateful for the outstanding contributions that Professor Alison Butler has provided to our campus for more than five years. We look forward to her exemplary contributions as she returns to full-time research, teaching, and service to our campus, as well as national and international scientific communities.
 
Please join us in welcoming Professor Mastro as our next Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel, and in thanking her for her willingness to serve our campus in this important way at this special time.
 
Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor

Search Advisory Committee for the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel
 
Tresa Pollock, Chair (Materials)
Richard Duran (Education)
Jill Felber (Music)
Gretchen Hofmann (EEMB)
Bruce Kendall (Bren School)
Jeffrey Stewart (Black Studies)
Cynthia Stohl (Communication)
 
Consultant to the Committee:
Ricardo Alcaíno (Director, Office of Equal Opportunity and Discrimination Prevention)