Meet the Associate Deans
Main Content
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.
Kristin Finch
Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
117 Ritenour Building
kef86@psu.edu
(814) 863-5960
Kristin Finch is the Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. In her role as the associate dean for diversity and inclusion, she will facilitate efforts to promote a nurturing climate for all members of the Eberly College of Science community, to advance the representation of diverse communities in those extraordinary academic disciplines representative of the college's educational programs, and to support the curricular and co-curricular programs sponsored by the College and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Finch previously served as the Associate Director for the Center for STEM Diversity at Tufts University.
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 her role as associate dean for graduate education, 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 master's 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.
Associate Dean for Research and Innovation
517 Thomas Building
as4@psu.edu
(814) 865-9591
Andrew Stephenson, Distinguished Professor of Biology, is the associate dean for research and innovation. In this position, Stephenson is responsible for supervision of the college research administration office and service on several University councils and committees.
Some of Stephenson’s goals for the position include further expanding and strengthening the mentoring of our new faculty and further enhancing the instrumentation and infrastructure of the college so that we can continue to perform world-class research that makes a real and positive difference in the world. Stephenson has been a faculty member in biology at Penn State since 1978. Stephenson earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees at the University of Michigan in 1978 and 1976, respectively. He earned a B.A. degree at the Miami University in Ohio in 1973.

Mary Beth Williams
Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
111 Ritenour Building
mew17@psu.edu
(814) 863-0284
Mary Beth Williams, professor of chemistry, is the senior associate dean for undergraduate education. This position is responsible for supervision of all aspects of the undergraduate education in the college.
Williams’ primary goals are to foster and ensure an environment of inclusive excellence and to enable the academic success of our undergraduate students. She works to use assessment data to drive continuous improvement of teaching and learning in the college, and to enhance advising and the student experience. She strives to recognize and reward faculty for excellence in the classroom, and provide them with assistance and support to improve existing or try new and innovative teaching methodologies via the Center for Excellence in Science Education.
Williams earned her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, where her thesis work under the direction of Royce Murray focused on the electron and mass transport dynamics in hybrid redox polyether melts. Following a post-doctoral 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 ~ 3100 students in the introductory chemistry course sequence, and served as the chemistry department graduate admissions and recruiting chair. She continues to direct the Chemistry Undergraduate Summer Research Program, with support from the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate site and from the 3M Foundation, to bring 20 undergraduates to the department each summer for full time research. In 2009 – 2010, she was the acting associate dean for administration and planning in the college.