Bellace promoted to Wharton deputy dean

Janice Bellace, vice dean and director of the undergraduate program of the Wharton School, was appointed deputy dean of the school, effective July 1. Bellace will replace Anthony Santomero, who has held the position since 1991. Santomero will return to his research and teaching at the school. As deputy dean, Bellace will be Wharton's chief academic officer and its second highest ranking official, Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity said this week. "It's a great feeling to be appointed deputy dean [as] someone who was an undergraduate at Penn," Bellace said. "It's an odd feeling to be here as a student and then join the faculty. It's a challenge and it's very exciting." Bellace has served as vice dean since 1990 and has spearheaded many of the undergraduate curriculum changes in the school. She said she is most proud of the fact that she has internationalized the Wharton curriculum and worked on the establishment of a dual degree program with the College of Arts and Sciences. The new position of deputy dean will mean less of an opportunity to interact with students, which Bellace says she will regret most. "I will miss having direct contact with many undergraduates, particularly outside of the classroom, because it allows me to really find students with diverse interests who make distinct contributions to the life of the University," she said. "In my new role, I expect my contact with undergraduates will be more limited, although it will still be there." And Bellace has already spelled out her goals for her new position, among them to maintain and improve the level of teaching currently in Wharton. "One of my immediate tasks, of course, will be recruiting -- targeting outstanding faculty candidates --which starts in the fall," she said. "It's a highly competitive market [and] to maintain our position we need to aim at the very top and attract them here. "I will work closely with department chairs and department faculty in identifying such people," Bellace added. Although Bellace is a professor of legal studies and management in Wharton, she will not teach next year. She will still team-teach a seminar on comparative labor law in the Law School, though. Gerrity said he is excited to work more closely with Bellace. "I am just delighted that [Bellace] has been willing to take this position," Gerrity said. "She has demonstrated just extraordinary leadership in her four years as vice dean, and I look forward to her bringing that same caliber of leadership to the whole school." An internal search for a replacement for Bellace has already begun, and Gerrity expects to name a replacement for her in the next two months. "We are in the process of identifying someone who is committed to undergraduate education and who can continue to move forward on some of the initiatives that have been taken, and that has ideas of his or her own about innovations that can be undertaken," Bellace said.

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