Mark Blumberg

University of Iowa Distinguished Chair

Chair, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

PhD, University of Chicago

Joined UI faculty in 1992

It would be my privilege to serve on the CLAS Executive Committee. As the college continues to confront significant challenges, it remains essential that faculty have strong, independent voices in governance. I am committed to helping ensure that the committee’s input and votes reflect our academic values, the diversity of faculty perspectives, and the long‑term interests of the college.

My service across the college, university, and profession has prepared me well for this role. At the collegiate level, I previously served on the Executive Committee (2022–25), co‑chaired the CLAS Budget Committee (2020–22), and represented the natural sciences and mathematics departments on the DEO Advisory Group (2020–22). I also served previously on the Promotion and Tenure Committee, the Named Chairs and Professorships Committee, and Faculty Assembly. At the departmental level, I am in my eighth year as DEO, following many years of teaching and broader service. For the university, I served on the search committee that hired the founding director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute, the Provost Search Committee, Faculty Senate, and Graduate Council. Beyond the university, I served as Editor‑in‑Chief of Behavioral Neuroscience and as President of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology.

I continue to run a large research lab—comprising undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, research associates, and staff—focused on the development of brain and behavior. My work has been continuously funded by NIH since 1994, and I have published more than 160 articles and chapters, authored three general‑science books, and co‑edited an Oxford University Press handbook. My contributions have been recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS Fellow), the Sleep Research Society’s Distinguished Scientist Award, and the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology’s Senior Investigator Award, along with major university honors such as the Regents Award for Faculty Excellence and the Scholar of the Year Award. 

I believe my diverse service contributions to the university and profession provide me with the knowledge and experience to be an effective advocate for science within the context of the larger needs and responsibilities of a great liberal arts institution.

Ed Gillan 

Professor, Department of Chemistry 

PhD, University of California, Los Angeles 

Joined UI faculty in 1997

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute my faculty and shared governance voice and experience to the CLAS Executive Committee. As a faculty member in the CLAS Department of Chemistry for nearly 29 years, I have worn many different hats that span teaching, research, and service activities. I have contributed to teaching teams that administer and teach some of our largest ~1000+ student introductory chemistry courses, including three semesters during the height of the recent pandemic. I have worked for decades to improve departmental laboratory safety training and safety culture and received the first UI OVPR Innovation in Laboratory Safety Award in 2020. I advise and mentor several doctoral graduate students in my inorganic materials chemistry research lab. I am very familiar with the challenges in securing external grant funding, producing research publications, and using university shared instrumentation facilities. I have a long record of departmental service, including serving about a decade on the chemistry executive committee with several different DEOs. I served on the OVPR’s Research Council for six years, including two as chair. 

I am very knowledgeable on UI policies through my nearly 15 years of service on the Faculty Senate’s Faculty Policies and Compensation Committee (FPCC), including six years as chair. My FPCC service involved extensive work on faculty-centered policies and practices including post-tenure reviews, faculty dispute procedures, and various other community policies. I also served on the Senate’s AAUP Sanction Removal Committee and contributed to our university’s successful efforts to remove our national AAUP sanction. This involved collaboration with our local AAUP chapter and creation of a best practices document for future UI Presidential searches. I was very pleased to see that our detailed best practices were successfully implemented in hiring of President Wilson. 

My most significant recent service has involved Faculty Senate activities where I served as Faculty Senate Vice-President, President, and Past-President during the 2022-2025 period. I was also a Senator for nine years, a Faculty Council member for three years, and was elected as Senate Secretary in 2016. My Senate officer governance activities involved extensive interactions with the President’s and Provost’s offices and most central administration offices and collegiate leadership. I worked on recent revisions to tenure-track and specialized-track faculty policies and faculty dispute (due process) procedures and navigated interactions with central administration (particularly provost and general counsel). I am knowledgeable about the campus budget details and have an increased awareness of the challenging intersection of academic freedom with faculty instructional and research activities. This year, I chaired the academic review of the Office of the Provost. 

I look forward to using my UI policy and faculty governance background to serve in an effective advisory role to the Dean and collegiate administration. I believe that I can provide advice, guidance, and useful strategies to achieve successful outcomes for collegiate challenges that are supportive of faculty, staff, and students, and balanced with collegiate and university administration needs.

Gary Pierce

Professor and DEO, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology

Russell B. Day and Florence D. Day Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences

PhD, University of Florida

Joined UI faculty in 2011

I would be honored to serve on the CLAS Executive Committee. I am DEO of the Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology (HHP), a large department that serves 2500+ undergraduate students across six majors, and 100+ graduate students across five degree programs. Our 54 faculty consists of 11 tenure-track/tenured (TT) faculty, 34 instructional-track (IT), and 9 instructors; therefore, I have a broad appreciation of the concerns and needs of both TT and IT faculty. I have worked extensively on mentoring junior and mid-career faculty, providing faculty with departmental leadership opportunities, and celebrating faculty, student, and staff success. Given the ongoing budget constraints in the college and challenges in higher education, it is more critical than ever that the college be creative in supporting renewed growth of smaller programs while sustaining larger departments strategically and equitably. I hope my experience as DEO in a large, complex department and the following service will prepare me well to serve the college on the CLAS Executive Committee. For example, in addition to serving as DEO, my departmental service includes Director of Graduate Studies (2018-2022), Honors program director (2015-18), and program director of M.S. Clinical Exercise Physiology graduate program (2013-present). At the Collegiate and University levels, I serve on the CLAS Dean’s DEO Advisory Group (2022-present), UI Presidential Committee on Athletics (Chair, 2025-present; member 2021-2025), UI Research Council (2025-present), and served on the UI Recreation Services Charter Committee (2018-2021) and UI Faculty Senate (2020-2023). For professional service, I serve as the Treasurer (2019-present) of the North American Artery Society, Councilor of the Association for Chairs of Departments of Physiology, served on several National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Heart Association (AHA) grant study sections, and am an Associate Editor of two journals in my field.  For mentoring and scholarship, I direct an extramurally funded research lab consisting of postdocs, graduate students, undergraduate students, and research staff that studies the mechanisms and risk factors that contribute to early vascular and cognitive aging in humans, and interventions (exercise, pharmacological) that may slow or treat vascular aging in individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease. I have published 130+ peer-reviewed articles (96 at Iowa), and my lab has been grant-funded by the NIH or AHA for 12+ years. I have served (past and current) as the primary mentor of 5 postdoctoral fellows, 6 PhD students, 8 MS thesis students, 11 undergraduate honors students, and 6 medical students/fellows, as well as numerous undergraduate independent study students. I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Integrative Physiology of Exercise, Cardiovascular Physiology, and Clinical Exercise Physiology, and a graduate seminar in Professional Skills for the Graduate Student. Finally, I was elected as a Fellow of the American Heart Association in 2016 and the American Physiological Society in 2023.  Thank you for considering my candidacy for the CLAS Executive Committee.

Megan Gilster

Associate Professor and Associate Director, School of Social Work

Ph.D., University of Michigan

Joined UI Faculty in 2013

Elizabeth Menninga

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Joined UI Faculty in 2015

I am honored to have been nominated to serve on CLAS Executive Committee. I am excited to bring my scholarly expertise on conflict management and resolution to this committee. Moreover, my career has been characterized by a focus on interdisciplinary collaborations and connections. I value interdisciplinary work and believe my experience engaging across the college will be an important foundation for my work on the Executive Committee; these interdisciplinary connections also reflect the values I want to bring to the Executive Committee. 

I have published with scholars across the university and participated in interdisciplinary research collaborations including Obermann research incubations and Wide Lens presentations, the Consortium on War and Genocide, and my residency at the Center for Social Science Innovation. My undergraduate and graduate courses cross list with interdisciplinary programs and certificates (e.g., social science analytics and the graduate program in informatics). I have served on or am currently serving on dissertation committees in 3 departments other than my own, and I have been on an external review for another department in the college. I am an engaged affiliate of International Programs, Informatics, and the Center for Social Science Innovation. 

These experiences have led me to appreciate the unique challenges departments (and the students and faculty in those departments) face as well as the truly impressive ways in which departments across the college (and the students and faculty in those departments) strive for excellence. I will bring these experiences to the Executive Committee while also remaining open to learn more from my colleagues across the college. As a member of the Executive Committee, I will strive to recognize individual need and excellence while also finding ways for the college to grow and improve together.

Melissa Tully

Professor and Director, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Joined UI Faculty in 2011

I am honored to have been nominated to serve on the CLAS Executive Committee. I believe my leadership and service experience have prepared me to be an effective contributor to the committee. I currently serve as DEO for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) and represent the social sciences on the Dean’s DEO Advisory Council. During my time as DEO, I have overseen several major milestones and transitions, including overseeing a successful reaccreditation process by the School’s external accrediting body and launching an experiential learning requirement for JMC majors. Through these experiences, I have had the opportunity to work closely with CLAS and UI leadership and have seen the value of shared governance.

I have served my department, CLAS, and UI in several roles. I was the Director of Undergraduate Studies in SJMC (2018-2021), served on the CLAS Information Technology Committee (2019-2021), on the Writing Certificate Steering Committee (2022-2023), on the UI Writing Structure Steering Committee (2024-2025), and on the Council on the Status of Women (2018-2021). I currently serve as a Fulbright Mentor at UI (2020-present) and have been on the Fulbright Committee since 2014. I am on the board of Student Publications, Inc. (2018-present). In my field, I served a three-year elected term on the Standing Committee on Research at Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC, 2020-2023) and served as vice-chair and chair of the AEJMC Participatory Journalism Interest Group (2011-2014).

My research and teaching explore media literacy and contemporary information environments, including how industries and audiences respond to artificial intelligence and other changes in media and information ecosystems. I am a Researcher Affiliate in Center for Social Science Innovation and was previously a Senior Research Fellow in the Public Policy Center. I am committed to advancing and supporting the social sciences in CLAS as well as supporting faculty and students across the college.

David Cunning

Professor and Collegiate Scholar, Department of Philosophy

PhD, University of California, Irvine

Joined UI faculty in 2003

I am honored to be a candidate for CLAS Executive Committee. I have been at the University of Iowa for over twenty years and have enjoyed banding together with others to make substantive service contributions that no individual can make alone. My roles at the university have included Philosophy Department Chair (2014-2022), Interim Chair of Religious Studies (2023-2024), Co-Chair of the CLAS Strategic Planning Committee (2020-2021), Co-Chair of the 2016-2021 UI Strategic Plan Committee, Faculty Senate Secretary (2013-2014), Director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy (2007-2013), and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Philosophy (2025-present). I was also a member of the UI Presidential Search Committee in 2020-2021. I have served as a member of the CLAS Executive Committee, the Task Force on Graduate Education, Research Council, the Governmental Relations Committee, the Faculty Policy and Compensation Committee, Faculty Senate, and Faculty Assembly.

As Chair of the Philosophy Department, I worked with faculty and staff colleagues to enact systems that (1) increase faculty research support and time, (2) promote graduate and undergraduate student research, (3) mobilize faculty to do equitable amounts of service, and (4) provide structures for students to engage in service-learning and more effectively synchronize their personal, community, and professional goals. As a faculty member I am increasingly concerned about the neo-liberalization of academia, the commodification of education, and the prioritization of efficiency over value. If elected, I would be excited to work with other members of the Executive Committee to pursue policies that put a mirror on shared governance.

I was named a CLAS Collegiate Scholar for 2017-18 and a CLAS Collegiate Fellow for 2024-2029. I have been a Fellow of the Big Ten Academic Alliance and a Fellow of the UI Center for Teaching. I enjoy teaching very much. In the last few years, I have taken courses as a student myself, to develop skills as part of a new research project at the intersection of philosophy, sociology, and economics. The experience of being back in the classroom as a student has been humbling, at times kind of terrifying, and overall very illuminating.

In terms of research, I have published four books, two edited volumes, and a number of articles, focusing on such issues as free will, historical conceptions of mind and body, agency, normativity, knowledge, authority, gender, and audience and reception, with a specialization in the early modern period (roughly 1600-1800). I am part of a national project – New Narratives in the History of Philosophy – that is bringing into the canon members of underrepresented groups who have made very significant philosophical contributions but who historically have been overlooked or silenced.

I tend to be a pragmatist, adhering to the maxim that it is often better to effect actual non-ideal change than to effect ideal non-actual change. I also recognize that often there are multiple approaches to change, and they need to be pursued simultaneously. If elected, I would be guided by a number of tenets: for example, that we need to protect the independence and freedom that are a pre-condition of innovative teaching and research; that often the best ideas at first seem half-baked; that there are a lot of faculty voices and they need to be heard; and that lively and respectful disagreement can be generative.

Here also is my website – https://philosophy.uiowa.edu/people/david-cunning. Thank you very much for considering my candidacy.

Yasmine Ramadan

Associate Professor of Arabic

Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures

Ph.D., Columbia University

Joined UI faculty in 2014

I am honored to be nominated to serve on the CLAS Executive Committee. I welcome the opportunity to participate in faculty governance during this critical time in higher education, when our college and university face numerous challenges. Throughout my time at the University of Iowa I have been committed to faculty governance, serving on Faculty Assembly for two terms, most recently in 2023-2026, during which time I also served as Faculty Assembly Chair (2023-2024). I remain particularly concerned with the support for underrepresented minority students, faculty, and staff on campus. Furthermore, I have been committed to student success throughout my time at the university, working extensively with undergraduate students as a faculty member, and in my role as director of the Arabic program. In this capacity I have collaborated with colleagues across the college and appreciate the diverse perspectives gained from working across disciplines and programs. 

Given the ongoing challenges facing institutions of higher education particularly in relationship to questions of public funding, student enrollment, and recruitment, it is vital that faculty continue to play an integral role in the governance of the university, and that we continue to ensure that the principles of shared governance are upheld. As a scholar and teacher of language and literature working in the humanities, I am particularly aware of the challenges facing our disciplines and look forward to working with colleagues across the college to promote a shared vision for the future. 

Elizabeth Yale

Associate Professor, Department of History and UI Center for the Book

Ph.D., Harvard University

Joined UI Faculty in 2014

I am honored to be nominated as a candidate for the CLAS Executive Committee. If elected, I would welcome the opportunity to work with colleagues to address opportunities and challenges the College faces. Though there are many things we can’t control, I am committed to building collaborations that foster a teaching and research culture at Iowa that engages undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty in conversations around shared intellectual questions. I see Collegiate and University service as an opportunity to tend the institutional structures that, at their best, help us ask questions together.

I have experienced the university from the vantage points of the instructional and tenure tracks and CLAS and the Graduate College, with appointments in History and the Center for the Book. I have been a member of the Arts and Humanities Initiative Review Committee and History’s representative on the CLAS Faculty Assembly. In History, I am currently Director of Undergraduate Studies. I have also been Honors Director and faculty advisor to the undergraduate peer-reviewed journal, The Iowa Historical Review. At the UICB, I have participated in strategic planning and I organize the annual Nancy Brownell Lecture in the History of the Book. I am on the History of Science Society’s Council and a Past President of the Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography.

My teaching and research focus on book history and the history of science in Europe from the 16^th-19^th centuries. I have worked to make opportunities for undergraduates that bring together the arts, creative research, and the humanities. With Matthew Brown (English), I was Co-Principal Investigator on a three-year NEH Humanities Initiative Grant, “Global Book Culture and the Student Laboratory: Undergraduate Education at the UI Center for the Book.”  With this grant, we collaborated with CLAS, UICB, and Library colleagues to make the UICB’s internationally renowned book arts and book history programming more accessible to CLAS students. I am an inaugural Provost’s AI Fellow, developing a course for the AI Certificate for Fall 2026.