McDonald named senior associate dean

Noreen McDonald was named senior associate dean for social sciences and global programs in the College of Arts and Sciences in January.

She succeeds Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, who completed his term in December.

McDonald has been a member of the UNC faculty since 2007. She served as chair of the department of city and regional planning since 2016. She is also the associate director of both the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety and the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Education and Development Center.

McDonald’s scholarship is at the intersection of city planning and public health. Her current projects focus on how transport technology, policy and COVID-19 impact road safety, movement of goods and access to healthcare. She is an internationally recognized expert on the travel behavior of youth and young adults and whose work has demonstrated the road safety and physical activity impacts of transport and school infrastructure. Her recent research explores disruptions associated with shared mobility, e.g., Uber/Lyft and autonomous vehicles.

McDonald received her undergraduate degree in engineering and chemistry from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in city planning from UC Berkeley.

As senior associate dean, McDonald oversees the departments/curricula and other units in the social sciences as well as the global programs of the College that are housed in the FedEx Global Education Center.