From: David H. Farrar, Provost and Vice-President Academic

Re: Selection of a Dean, Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies; and Vice-Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

It is my pleasure to announce that the Board of Governors has accepted the President’s recommendation to appoint Dr. Susan Porter as Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, and Vice-Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, for a three-year term commencing December 1, 2013.  She has been serving in the role as Dean pro tem since April, 2011.

Dr. Porter holds a clinical professorial position in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine.   She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1980 and her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia in 1988.  She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia from 1989 – 1991, and joined UBC as a faculty member in 1991.  After an initial focus on basic research in molecular genetics, she moved to molecular-based diagnostics development and oversight, serving as Scientist for the Division of Medical Microbiology & Infection Control at Vancouver General Hospital for 15 years.

Dr. Porter’s administrative service at UBC includes:  Graduate Advisor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine; Assistant Dean, Graduate & Postdoctoral Education in the Faculty of Medicine; Associate Dean, Professional Development, in the Faculty of Graduate Studies; and most recently, Dean pro tem in the Faculty of Graduate Studies since 2011, following the early resignation of Dean Barbara Evans.

I am grateful to Dr. Porter for accepting the role and appreciate her strong leadership.  Susan cares deeply about the graduate and postdoctoral experience, and has been a tireless advocate for strategies to attract and retain the best graduate students from around the world.  She has championed improved support for graduate students and has overseen fundamental changes to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.  She brings a strong commitment to academic formation and professional development of graduate and postdoctoral fellows.  Her efforts to promote career-related development and the preparation of research-based learners not only to create new knowledge and ways of understanding, but to use that knowledge and skill with “integrity, responsibility, and generosity”, are helping to prepare graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who will make a positive difference in the world.