F.M. Anne McNabb, of Blacksburg, professor of biology in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been appointed associate dean of the Graduate School by Graduate School Dean Karen DePauw.

As associate dean, McNabb will assist with the Transformative Graduate Education initiative and coordinate interdisciplinary programs, as well as work with the GTA Workshop, which helps prepare graduate teaching assistants for their instructional role in the university. She also will be involved in recruiting and retention of graduate students and will work with the dean and senior associate dean to make admission decisions, counsel faculty and students, interpret policies and procedures, and assist with the day-to-day management of the Graduate School.

The position appealed to McNabb, she said, "because of the Transformative Graduate Education initiative and the associated innovations that are occurring in the Graduate School under Dean DePauw's leadership."

McNabb served as an assistant department head for graduate studies in biology for seven years and has been involved in a number of other graduate-relevant service roles at different levels of the university. "Those experiences were important in shaping my belief that programs should facilitate the development of professionalism suitable to the career goals of our graduate students," McNabb said. "I thrive on working with people and enjoy the challenge and problem solving involved in making new initiatives work."

"Dr. McNabb has been involved in graduate training and service to graduate education throughout her career and has a deep commitment to learner-centered education that addresses the whole person," DePauw said. "We look forward to the experience and commitment she brings to this position and to the development of our graduate students."

McNabb received her bachelor's degree from the University of Alberta and a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University before coming to Virginia Tech. Her research is in the development of thyroid function. "In recent years, this work has been semi-applied and more ecologically relevant," she said. "It has focused on the effects of environmental contaminants on thyroid development in birds," she said. McNabb is the author of the book Thyroid Hormones, a research-level textbook.

McNabb, who has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also has served as a panel member for the NSF and on an EPA Science Advisory Review Panel. She has been on the editorial boards of seven scientific journals and served in national and international professional societies. She has published 79 journal articles, book chapters, and symposium papers.

McNabb has trained both master's and Ph.D. students in her own laboratory. "My position as the department's assistant head for Graduate Studies encompassed three areas critical to quality graduate programs: recruitment, fostering quality graduate training and development, and program assessment," she said. She also served on the Commission on Graduate Studies, six years on the Commission on Research (COR), chairing it for one year, and six years as the COR representative to the Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Board. She chaired the College of Arts and Sciences Planning Subcommittee on Graduate Education. In the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, she chaired or co-chaired the Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs Committee for five years.

She chaired the University Strategic Self Study on "Transforming Virginia Tech for the Information Age." She also has strong interests in fostering the recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented minorities and has been involved with a number of diversity activities. She is currently mentoring a doctoral student who will teach under the Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI), led by Shelli Fowler, that is bringing educational pedagogy to Virginia Tech's graduate students.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 170 academic degree programs.

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