Dear Weldon Family, I'm happy to announce that we have a new Director of Graduate Programs... But first, I'd like to correct a mistake in my previous message requesting nominations for the Director of Graduate Programs. I had previously said that Andrew Brightman served as the Weldon Director of Graduate Programs when Tammy Kinzer-Ursem was recruited to the Dean's Office. In fact, Dr. Brightman took over the role from Mike Heinz after what was an incredible and transformative leadership effort. Mike led the Weldon BME Graduate Programs for 6 years (from 2017-2019 as Graduate Committee Chair and then as the inaugural Director of Graduate Programs from 2019-2023, when he stepped down to pursue a new leadership opportunity in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences as the inaugural Associate Head for Research). There were many improvements to the BME Grad programs that were accomplished under his 6-year leadership. Throughout, a key guidepost was to increase the rigor of graduate training through increasing mentorship. This vision led to many achievements under Mike's leadership including a change in culture to a student-centric grad training program with broad mentorship, adoption of yearly IDPs, development of a standard research-credit expectations form, revision of POS process to ensure broad and early mentorship on coursework, revision of the QLA process into a mentoring-focused rigorous qualifying process, adoption of yearly mentoring meetings, update to prelim processes including requiring them much earlier in the program, among many other smaller changes to improve processes. A major effort happened in 2021 under the new Headship of David Umulis when Mike led the effort to revamp the Grad Program Milestones. I sincerely thank him for his years of service and dedication to the school and I hope you will also extend this gratitude to him as well! Now... It is with excitement and enthusiasm that we share with you that Dr. Deva Chan has accepted our offer to serve as the Director of Graduate Programs. We are convinced that she will add another layer of success to BME using the great foundation that has been laid by many before her. Deva is a passionate advocate for graduate education and has been an active member of the BME Graduate Committee. As a Purdue graduate alum (PhD, 2012), she is invested in ensuring that our graduate program continues to gain recognition and improve its rankings. Deva brings experience from her involvement in graduate programs at multiple PhD-granting institutions. She also serves as a faculty representative in BME for Purdue's Sloan Center for Systemic Change, which focuses on achieving equity for graduate students in STEM. Deva's experience and commitment to graduate education make her an excellent fit for this leadership position in the Weldon School. As Director of Graduate Programs, she will continue the work of Mike Heinz and Andrew Brightman, further focusing our program on student mentorship. Deva will also lead the ongoing integration of the graduate curriculum and training environment offered at the Indianapolis and West Lafayette sites. Please join us in welcoming Deva into her new role as she guides our graduate programs to new heights of excellence. -- Kevin Otto, Ph.D. Dane A. Miller Head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Professor Purdue University kotto@purdue.edu<mailto:kotto@purdue.edu> https://nprlab.org/<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnprlab.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cbmeroundtable-list%40ecn.purdue.edu%7C8bc8525827014a58924b08dcbd21d811%7C4130bd397c53419cb1e58758d6d63f21%7C0%7C0%7C638593200255803670%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=W51vauyuWucNgXCLcCfYQTLpFd%2Fq01GvZOH7WsHU6ds%3D&reserved=0> **My email may come at odd hours. My work hours may not be your work hours. Do not feel obliged to reply outside of your normal working day** For calendar scheduling, please contact Cory Wilfong (cwilfong@purdue.edu<mailto:cwilfong@purdue.edu>) -- Bmeroundtable-list mailing list Bmeroundtable-list@ecn.purdue.edu https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECN/mailman/listinfo/bmeroundtable-list