Two new faculty join dean’s senior leadership team

Two new faculty members have joined the dean’s senior leadership team: Karla Slocum, the associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, and Greg Copenhaver, associate dean for research and innovation.

In 2021, Dean Terry Rhodes announced that the College would be elevating the director of faculty diversity initiatives to an associate dean position. Slocum, the first person in that role, has distinguished herself as a leader in her 25 years at Carolina. She is the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy in the department of anthropology and has served as director of the Institute of African American Research since 2013.

At IAAR, she led a number of programs that facilitate and raise the visibility of diverse approaches to scholarship on race. This past year, she oversaw the IAAR’s SLATE initiative — Student Learning to Advance Truth and Equity, an initiative to engage undergraduates in a critical understanding of race, racism and racial equity, especially as they concern African Americans.

Slocum’s research interests focus on the social dynamics of race and community, especially historic rural Black communities in the African diaspora.

Copenhaver replaces Chris Clemens in the research and innovation dean role.

A member of the UNC faculty since 2001, he shares joint appointments as a professor in the department of biology and the Integrative Program for Biological and Genome Sciences. He also served on committees that led to the formation of the College’s Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship. He has taught in the program since 2008. In addition, he is affiliated with the UNC Center for Bioethics, the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the curriculum in genetics.

He has also made important contributions to science outside the university setting and has experience launching a startup: He co-founded and grew a biotechnology company and has been at the forefront of promoting open-access science by serving as editor-in-chief at PLOS Genetics.