Dean's Executive Team

Teresa Diehl

Associate Dean of Administration

520 Thomas Building
tad6@psu.edu
(814) 865-9487

Teresa Diehl is the associate dean of administration. In this role, she oversees information technology, facilities, communications, outreach, and a number of budget- and leadership- related processes for the college. Areas of focus include planning for renovations on our instructional laboratories, restructuring and re-visioning the outreach efforts of the college, and a number of budget reduction– and process improvement–related initiatives.

Teresa came to Penn State in 1996 to serve as the director of the Department of Transportation Services. Previous to that, she performed similar duties at the United States Military Academy, where she served as the Provost Marshal’s Office plans officer. As director of the Department of Transportation Services, Teresa managed the transportation and parking resources for 41,000 students and 16,000 employees across 17,000 parking spaces, including four parking structures. Teresa also served as an Administrative Fellow, mentored by Craig Weidemann, vice president of outreach, in 2008. Her fellowship was followed by two special projects for the University: a review of the Commonwealth Campus Housing Study and the creation of an RFP for a feasibility study and project coordinator position for the Pegula Ice Arena project. She is also a graduate of Leadership Centre County, class of 2014.

Today, Teresa uses her extensive experience in evaluating, planning, organizing, and directing operational processes on behalf of the Eberly College of Science. She earned her doctorate in Workforce Education and Development from Penn State and a master’s in public administration from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She earned her bachelor of science from the State University of New York at Albany.

Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion (search under way)

Search committee members

• Stephanie Danette Preston, Associate Dean for Graduate Educational Equity (Cochair)
• Miguel Mostafá, Professor of Physics and of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation (Cochair)
• Samia Cooperider, Director of Undergraduate Equity Programs
• Miriam Freedman, Professor of Chemistry
• Murali Haran, Professor and Department Head, Department of Statistics
• Sophielle Silvers, Graduate Student, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Claire Thomas, Associate Professor of Biology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Associate Department Head of Climate and Diversity

Associate Dean for Research (internal search under way)

Search committee members

• Douglas Wolfe, Associate Vice President for Research (Chair)
• Emily Kuhns, Technology Licensing Officer
• Manuel Llinás, Ernest C. Pollard Professorship in Biotechnology
• Melissa Gensimore, Proposal and Award Generalist, Manager Pre-Award
• Nikki Crowley, Assistant Professor of Biology, Huck Early Career Chair in Neurobiology and Neural Engineering
• Philip Bevilacqua, Department Head of Chemistry

Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Students (search under way)

Search committee members

• David Smith, Executive Director DUS & Associate Dean (Chair)
• Cyndi Meyers, Administrative Support Coordinator
• Paul Milewski, Department Head of Mathematics
• Megan Holmes, Future Students Coordinator
• Meredith Defelice, Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs and Teaching Professor of BMB
• Sharon Fong, Academic Adviser, Premedicine and Science
• Carolyn Jensen, Director, Eberly College of Science Academic Advising Center
• Cecil Shelton, Lecturer in Statistics
• Erik Ketterer, Undergraduate Student

Aleksandra Slavkovic

Associate Dean for Graduate Education

421A Thomas Building
sesa@stat.psu.edu
(814) 863-4918

Aleksandra Slavkovic, professor of statistics, is the associate dean for graduate education.  In this role, Aleksandra will oversee the enhancement of the graduate programs in the college and work closely with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Climate and Diversity Committee, and the departmental associate heads for equity to foster a positive climate for all members of the college. She will also work with graduate students and faculty in the college to improve graduate student mentoring and training for the full suite of jobs that graduate students will compete for.

Aleksandra joined Penn State in 2004. She has served in various positions in the statistics department, including associate head for diversity and equity and associate head for graduate studies. Aleksandra has affiliated appointments in the Institute for CyberScience, the Department of Public Health Sciences, and the Penn State College of Medicine, and she serves on Penn State’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Director’s Council. She has also held visiting scholar positions at Cornell University, the University of Minnesota, and Utrecht University.

Aleksandra received masters degrees in human-computer interaction and in statistics and a doctoral degree in statistics from Carnegie Mellon University. Her current research interests include statistical data privacy with applications across different domains, algebraic statistics, causal inference, and more broadly the application of statistics to information sciences and social sciences.

Mary Beth Williams

Senior Associate Dean for Science Education

244 Ritenour Building
mew17@psu.edu
(814) 863-0284

Mary Beth Williams, professor of chemistry, is the senior associate dean for science education. This position is responsible for initiatives to ensure teaching and learning meets the college’s mission to educate future generations of scientists. Williams’s major focus is to adopt evidence-based teaching methodologies like active learning and inquiry-based instruction.

In this role, Williams oversees curricular development and innovation in collaboration with the Center for Science Excellence in Education, the Office of Digital Learning, the college's departments, and the University. She also provides leadership in the planning, design, curricular development, implementation, and evaluation of undergraduate and graduate teaching and learning initiatives. Additionally, she collaborates with the Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses to promote faculty collaboration and encourage curricular development and innovation across the Penn State campuses.

Williams earned her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina. Her thesis work under the direction of Royce Murray focused on the electron and mass transport dynamics in hybrid redox polyether melts. Following a postdoctoral research assistantship at Northwestern University with Joe Hupp, Williams joined the Penn State faculty in the Department of Chemistry in 2001. In addition to her research program, Williams has taught thousands of students in the introductory chemistry course sequence and served as the chemistry department's graduate admissions and recruiting chair, and she directs the Chemistry Undergraduate Summer Research Program. She led Penn State's General Education Task Force from 2013 to 2015, which was integral in launching the college's Evidence-Based Teaching Academy in 2018, and currently is principal investigator for the college's Science Dean's Scholars Program and the University's Millennium Scholars Program. Williams also served as the acting associate dean for administration and planning from 2009 to 2010 and as the senior associate dean for undergraduate education from 2011 to 2019.

Alba Congiu

Financial Officer

albacongiu@psu.edu
(814) 863-1955

Alba comes to us from the Penn State College of Education, where she served as financial officer, following seven years at the University’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

Kim Neely

Senior Director, Development and Alumni Relations

430 Thomas Building
kan2@psu.edu
(814) 863-1247

Kim Neely has over 25 years of professional fundraising experience. As senior director of the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, Neely oversees a staff that focuses on alumni relations and fundraising campaigns for the Eberly College of Science that meet strategic priorities for the dean and relate to student and faculty support, programmatic development, and research advancement and align with the University’s objectives.

Prior to joining the college, Neely worked alongside vice provosts for undergraduate education, student affairs and educational equity to generate resources for these student-focused areas of Penn State. She began her Penn State fundraising career in the College of Health and Human Development in 1995. From 2005-2015, Neely managed the first ever capital campaign for Mount Nittany Health, and over those 10 years built a fundraising team and program that generated community support to significantly upgrade and improve the physical plant of Mount Nittany Health and add important programs and services.

Neely has served on numerous boards and committees locally and regionally and won the Association of Fundraising Professional’s Spirit of Philanthropy Award for Central Pennsylvania in 2015. She has a master’s degree in communications with a public relations concentration.

Heather Robbins

Director, Office of Communications

428D Thomas Building
hmh5009@psu.edu
(814) 867-5830

As director of communications, Heather Robbins oversees the strategic direction of the Eberly College of Science by creating and executing marketing and public relations communications strategies and functions that focus on building Eberly’s brand and national reputation. She leads a talented communications team in identifying compelling stories that align with both the college’s and University’s strategic plans and fundraising campaigns.

Prior to joining the Eberly College of Science, Robbins managed Penn State's media strategy for almost seven years in the University's Office of Strategic Communications. She has experience in media relations, science writing, strategic planning, issues and crisis communications, internal communications and social media management. For nearly a decade, Robbins has also served as an adjunct lecturer in the Penn State Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, teaching public relations methods as well as editing and introductory journalism and communications courses.

Robbins began her career in journalism at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa., and joined Penn State in 2013 as a writer/editor in the University's News and Media Relations office. She also directed a high school digital journalism summer camp with the Bellisario college for eight years.

Her honors include being recognized by Penn State's strategic communications office with two employee achievement awards, as well as several awards and honors from industry associations, including the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's Keystone Press Award and Press Club of Western Pennsylvania’s Golden Quill Award. A three-time Penn State graduate, Robbins has a masters in media studies -- where she focused on science communication for her thesis -- and bachelors degrees in journalism and international relations.

Adrian Weaver

Interim Human Resources Strategic Partner, Human Resources Consultant

512 Thomas Building
aun3@psu.edu
(814) 863-6216

Adrian joined Penn State in 2003 as an administrative assistant in the Department of Chemistry Undergraduate Programs Office. Shortly thereafter she was promoted to a Research Staff Assistant within the department. In this role, she supported nine faculty members and their research groups. In 2009, Adrian transition to a new role as an Associate Coordinator of Grants & Contracts within the College of Science. She held this position until she was hired as a Human Resource Consultant in 2011, the role she currently holds. In June 2022, Adrian took on the Interim HR Strategic Partner role in addition to her role as an HR Consultant. Adrian is an active volunteer in her local community and is a certified instructor of Tang Soo Do, for which she currently holds a first-degree black belt.

Kristen Robinson

Executive Assistant to the Dean

517 Thomas Building
kjg17@psu.edu
(814) 865-9592

Kristen joined Penn State in 2009 as an administrative assistant in the College of Engineering and shortly transferred to the Engineering Deans Financial office before joining the Eberly College of Science in 2013. Kristen joined the Eberly College of Science as the assistant to the Associate Dean for Graduate Education and the Associate Dean for Research before transitioning into her current role.

Chemistry department head search committee

• Beth McGraw, (Chair) Professor and Department Head of Biology
• Angela Bischof, Director of General Chemistry Labs
• J. Martin Bollinger, Professor of Natural Products Chemistry
• Isis Carmona-Sepulveda, Graduate Student (Chemistry)
• Julie Fenton, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
• Jonathan Kuo, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
• Ben Lear, Associate Professor of Chemistry
• Sarah Lonsinger, Administrative Manager
• Stewart Mallory, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
• Troy Ott, Associate Director of the Huck Institutes of Life Sciences
• Lauren Zarzar, Associate Professor of Chemistry

Statistics department head search committee

• Randy McEntaffer, Chair, Department Head in Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Matthew Beckman, Associate Research Professor; Chair of Undergraduate Curricula
• Guido Cervone, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences
• David Hunter, Professor
• Prabhani Kuruppumullage Don, Associate Research Professor; Assistant Director of Online Programs
• Ephraim Hanks, Associate Professor
• Melanie McKinney, Administrative Coordinator
• Maggie Niu, Associate Professor
• Hyebin Song, Assistant Professor
• Kaitlyn Webb, Graduate Student