Re: Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Strategy
To: All Employees
 June 15, 2022
 
Dear Colleagues,
 
Following a nationwide search, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Christiane Spitzmüller as Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Strategy.
Dr. Spitzmüeller will join UC Merced with two decades of higher education experience. She is an experienced data-driven academic administrator with expertise in strategic planning and implementation. Dr. Spitzmüeller will be joining us from the University of Houston, where she serves as the Project Director of a nine-institution $2M NSF-funded research consortium dedicated to examining validity and bias in promotion and tenure decision making. Dr. Spitzmüeller has also been instrumental in leading strategic endeavors associated with increasing faculty grant expenditures, increasing representation of under-represented populations in a variety of roles, mentoring faculty post-docs and graduate students, and fundraising.
 
Recently, Dr. Spitzmüeller served as a committee member on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s consensus study on mentorship in STEMM, with a focus on increasing mentoring access for students from marginalized backgrounds. She served on the editorial boards for Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology and Organizational Research Methods, and has published research in top journals in Psychology and Organizational Behavior, with her work being cited more than 4000 times, and covered recently in outlets such as Forbes, The Huffington Post, BBC News, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
 
She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Koblenz-Landau. Supported through a Fulbright scholarship, Dr. Spitzmüeller 
completed a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Bowling Green State University and joined the faculty of the University of Houston in 2003, becoming full professor in 2017.
 
I would like to thank everyone who took time out of their schedules to meet with each of the candidates for the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Strategy. A special thanks to the search committee, which included:
 
  • Chris Kello, Interim Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education (Chair)
  • Reza Ehsani, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
  • Max Eriksson, Assistant Project Scientist, Office of Research and Economic Development
  • Laura Martin, Assistant EVC/Provost, Academic Planning and Institutional Assessment
  • Jesus Sandoval-Hernandez, Associate Professor, Economics and Business Management
  • Michael Richards, Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost
 
Please join me in welcoming our new colleague and thanking our current colleagues for their service.
 
Dr. Spitzmüeller will join us on September 1, 2022. I look forward to drawing on her experience and very much look forward to introducing her to our campus.
 
Yours,
 
Gregg Camfield
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost