Parise steps down as faculty chair

Professor Leslie Parise announced March 25 that she will step down as faculty chair by the end of this semester. Parise, who is also chair of the biochemistry and biophysics department in the School of Medicine, served as chair of the faculty for the past two years.

“In balancing the demands of this position with those of chairing my home department and running a research lab, it has become apparent that I will not be able to do justice to all these efforts in the coming year,” Parise said in a letter to the faculty. “This decision was not easy because of my desire to continue working on the faculty’s behalf, particularly given the recent transitions in senior leadership.”

Interim Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz thanked Parise for her outstanding service to Carolina over the past two years. “I’m grateful for all the time and effort she put in to this tremendous responsibility, especially as we worked to address several challenging issues,” he said in a tweet.

A new chair can’t be elected this year because ballots for faculty election go out this week, said Vin Steponaitis, faculty secretary. Instead, the faculty Advisory Committee will appoint an interim chair of the faculty to serve through June 2020, when a new faculty chair will be elected.

The Office of Faculty Governance has created a web portal for faculty to submit recommendations for interim chair to the committee. The deadline for submissions is midnight March 31.