A search committee will be launched to replace Jeanne Ferrante, who will leave her position on Nov. 1 to resume her duties as a professor of computer science

UCSD Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Equity Jeanne Ferrante announced this week that she will step down on Nov. 1, after serving in the position for five years under the newly created Office of Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Ferrante joined UCSD as a professor of computer science in 1994, becoming the department chair in 1996. Since then, Ferrante has become a Fellow of Association for Computing Machinery and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. In 2006, she received the ACM SIGPLAN Programming Languages Achievement Award for her work in Static Single Assignment form.

As AVC for Faculty Equity, Professor Ferrante created the first core group of Faculty Equity Advisors to foster faculty department diversity and began multiple initiatives aimed at gender equity and women’s leadership.

Ferrante was also involved in starting faculty orientation programs and creating a UCSD-hosted round-table discussion regarding equity and diversity in academics and hiring practices. The discussion is slated to take place later this month.

“Professor Ferrante has played a leading role in advancing [UCSD]’s goal of achieving and sustaining faculty equity and diversity in pursuit of academic excellence,” Executive Vice Chancellor Suresh Subramani and Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Linda S. Greene said in a campus release. “She has been integral in our efforts to recruit, retain and support faculty with demonstrated diversity experience and those who are willing to make substantial contributions in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Following a sabbatical, Ferrante will resume her position as professor in the UCSD department of computer science and engineering.

“It is clear that her work has had meaningful impact, for which we are deeply grateful,” Subramani and Greene said in the release.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion will begin a campuswide search for a new AVC for Faculty Equity following the creation of a search committee in the near future.