Announcing the appointment of Nancy Freitag as head of the UIC Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dear faculty and staff,

I am writing to share that Nancy Freitag, PhD, vice provost for faculty affairs, has accepted the position of head of the UIC Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy, effective March 1, 2022. Nancy is a very active researcher and an excellent administrator. I have no doubt that she will be an effective member of the College of Pharmacy leadership team.

Nancy remains an enthusiastic supporter of the well-being, development and advancement of faculty and will continue serving in her role as vice provost for faculty affairs until March 2022. During her time as vice provost thus far, she has worked with numerous faculty committees to implement key policies and programs to advance the professional development and promotion of faculty members. She has contributed to important faculty search training programs; new faculty orientation programming; faculty promotion and tenure workshops; the mid-career writing program for associate professors; new programming for emeriti faculty; faculty awards nominations; an orientation and support program for new deans, heads and chairs; and the faculty-administrator leadership program. She is an avid supporter of CATE and was very involved in the recruitment of Erin O’Leary as CATE’s director, and she has chaired ongoing efforts based on Faculty Senate recommendations to improve methods of teaching assessment on campus. Nancy has collaborated with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Engagement to give voice to faculty diversity via the Diversity Advisory Committee and the underrepresented faculty recruitment program, and she has helped support the new Bridge to the Faculty program. She has advocated for the recognition of faculty efforts based in diversity, equity and inclusion as part of the promotion and tenure process.

While serving as vice provost for faculty affairs, Nancy has remained an active researcher, continuing to publish, obtain federal funding, and give invited lectures nationally and internationally. Nancy is also a key member of my leadership team, and I want to thank her personally as I relied on her for thoughtful advice and expertise during my transition as provost at UIC. The vice provost for faculty affairs is a critical member of campus administration and an important liaison for faculty. We will begin the search to fill this position and will announce the details of the process early in the new year.

Please join me in thanking Nancy for her service as vice provost for faculty affairs and wishing her well in this next stage of her career.

Sincerely,

Javier Reyes
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs