Dean's Office Our Academic Leadership
Estella Atekwana, Dean
Dean Estella Atekwana is a visionary leader and ardent champion for diversity, firmly believing that diversity defines our greatest strengths. As Dean of the College of Letters and Science — the largest and most comprehensive college at UC Davis — she provides academic and administrative leadership to 37 departments and programs across the arts, humanities, social sciences, and the mathematical and physical sciences, supporting more than 900 faculty members, 300 staff, 14,000 undergraduates and 1,500 graduate students. Her priorities include enhancing student success, fostering equitable outcomes across all student demographics, and amplifying the transformative impact of faculty and alumni.
Since beginning her tenure in August 2021, Dean Atekwana has drawn on her experience from prior roles as Dean of the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment at the University of Delaware and Head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University. An internationally renowned geophysicist, her research focuses on biogeophysics, near-surface geophysics, tectonics, geodynamics and continental rifting.
Dean Atekwana’s contributions to education and science have earned her numerous prestigious accolades, including:
- Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Dalhousie University, 2024
- Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2024
- Honorary School of Geology Alumnus Award, Oklahoma State University, 2024
- Elected Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 2022
- Society of Exploration Geophysicists: 2021 Reginald Fessenden Award
- Society of Exploration Geophysicists: 2020 Virtual Near Surface Global Lecturer
- Association of Women Geoscientists: 2019 Outstanding Educator
- Society of Exploration Geophysicists: 2016 Outstanding Educator Award
- Elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America, 2016
- Eminent Faculty, Oklahoma State University, 2015
- Regents Distinguished Professor, Oklahoma State University, 2011
Dean Atekwana is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, American Geophysical Union, the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers, the Geochemical Society, and the National Association of Black Geoscientists, and Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in geology from Howard University and a Ph.D. in geophysics from Dalhousie University. Her leadership is rooted in inclusive excellence, propelling the College of Letters and Science toward new heights in advancing knowledge, fostering collaboration and creating a lasting societal impact.
Elizabeth Miller, Executive Associate Dean
The College’s Executive Associate Dean focuses on both inward-facing operations and college-wide projects, including developing chair and faculty mentoring programs, nurturing stronger faculty/department collaborations, expanding our interdisciplinary efforts, and other initiatives.
Elizabeth (Liz) Miller joined the UC Davis faculty in 2008 and is currently a Professor of English. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and has previously held positions at Ohio University, University of Michigan, and University of Oklahoma. A scholar of nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature and the environmental humanities, she is the author of 3 books and numerous articles and has edited 2 books and 2 special issues. Her major scholarly awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, ACLS Fellowship, and UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellowship. Among other service roles on campus, Professor Miller has served as Chair of the English Department; Interim Chair of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies; and Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee in Letters and Science.
Executive Associate Dean Miller's CV.
Annaliese Franz, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Success
Professor Annaliese Franz has been a member of the faculty at UC Davis since 2007 and is currently a full professor in the Department of Chemistry. She has served as a vice chair of undergraduate affairs in the Department of Chemistry, a member of the Academic Senate Undergraduate Council and as the faculty director of the campuswide Undergraduate Research Center. She is a world-renowned researcher focusing on organic synthesis, catalysis and sustainable production of biofuels and materials from microalgae, with over 60 refereed articles in premier chemistry and biotechnology journals. Professor Franz has served as a research advisor/mentor for over 30 doctoral students and over 60 undergraduate researchers in her lab. Her research and programs have received substantial funding from the National Science Foundation, California Energy Commission, Department of Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and National Institutes of Health. She is currently Director/PI for the UC Davis NSF Louis Stokes California Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP/CAMP) Scholars Program, the Mentorship for Undergraduate Research Participants in Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MURPPS) Scholars Program and the HHMI Driving Change Initiative at UC Davis.
Noah Guynn, Associate Dean of the Faculty in the Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
The College’s Associate Dean of the Faculty in the Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies has primary responsibility for the oversight of academic personnel and faculty affairs for faculty working within the humanities, arts and cultural studies.
Professor Noah Guynn, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 1998, is a specialist in medieval and early modern literature, theater and culture. His recent book Pure Filth: Ethics, Politics, and Religion in Early French Farce, appeared in 2020 in The Middle Ages Series at the University of Pennsylvania Press. He is also coeditor, with Marilynn Desmond (Binghamton University), of a special issue of Romanic Review entitled Category Crossings: Bruno Latour and the Middle Ages, and with Zrinka Stahuljak (UCLA), of an edited volume entitled Violence and the Writing of History in the Medieval Francophone World. He has just completed a coauthored book entitled Verginia and Lucretia: An Edition and Translation of Episodes from Bersuire’s “Tite-Live” and Jean de Meun’s “Roman de la rose” (forthcoming in the Gallica Series at Boydell & Brewer), and he is working on a new monograph entitled “Against Protoforms: Untimely Feminism, Dialectical Shock, and the Anachronic Middle Ages.”
Thomas Lee, Associate Dean of the Faculty in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences
The College’s Associate Dean of the Faculty in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences has primary responsibility for the oversight of academic personnel and faculty affairs for faculty working within the mathematical and physical sciences.
With a doctorate in statistics from Macquarie University, and having previously held faculty positions at the University of Chicago, Colorado State University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Thomas Lee joined the UC Davis faculty in 2010. With expertise in nonparametic and semiparametric modeling and statistical learning, he was elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2009 and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 2014. He is the past editor of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, among other professional contributions, and he previously served as chair of the Department of Statistics.
Lori Lubin, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
The Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies has primary responsibility for supporting and enhancing research and graduate degree programs across the College. This includes facilitating and supporting cross-departmental and cross-college research initiatives, overseeing contracts and grants, and developing mentorship programs to cultivate research expertise and collaboration among faculty.
Professor Lori Lubin has been a member of the faculty at UC Davis since 2002 and is currently serving as Chancellor’s Leadership Professor of Physics and Astronomy. She is world-renowned as an observational astronomer whose research focuses on galaxy clusters, which are among the most massive objects in the universe. She received a prestigious Carnegie Fellowship at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, followed by a Hubble Fellowship, often viewed as the top fellowship in astronomy, which she took at the California Institute of Technology. She has over 100 refereed articles in premier astronomy and astrophysics journals in addition to substantial funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Kathryn Olmsted, Associate Dean of the Faculty in the Social Sciences
The College’s Associate Dean of the Faculty in the Social Sciences has primary responsibility for the oversight of academic personnel and faculty affairs for faculty working within the social sciences.
A professor of history, Kathryn Olmsted has written five books and many articles and book chapters on the history of the United States from World War I to the present. Her most recent books include Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy; Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism; and The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler. She has served as chair of the Department of History and of the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies.