2006-07 Program Review Council and Subcommittees Appointed

Program Review, now in its 21st year at Northwestern University, is again underway with a new schedule of reviews slated to take place.

Thirteen units organized into nine groups will undergo Program Review during the 2006-07 year. This year marks the seventh year in the third cycle of reviews.

Initiated in 1985, Program Review is a mechanism for the systematic review and evaluation of all academic and administrative units of the University. The overall purpose of Program Review has remained unchanged since its inception: to assess program quality and effectiveness and to stimulate program planning and improvement.

Program Review provides an opportunity for all members of an administrative or academic unit to engage in thoughtful self-reflection about the unit's mission, challenges, emerging opportunities, and to refine its strategic course in light of these. With input from the Program Review Council subcommittees and external reviewers, the central administration has relied upon and successfully used Program Review as a key method for ensuring that excellent units can sustain their high level of performance and improve and for identifying and aiding problematic units.

Summaries of the program reviews are shared with members of the University's senior and line administration and Board of Trustees, but are otherwise kept confidential within the respective units.

Program Review is overseen by the Program Review Council, an appointed steering committee comprised of senior faculty and administrators who each serve a three-year term and also serve as chairs of the individual review subcommittees. The Council is appointed based upon a slate of potential members recommended by the GFC Committee on Committees, the deans and other administrative officers. 

The Program Review Council is representative of the various disciplinary and administrative interests within the University, but not all units in any single year are represented. Individual subcommittee members are appointed for one year for the specific review on which they are asked to serve. Each year, a member of the Council is also appointed to serve as Chair. Joseph T. Walsh, senior associate dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and professor of biomedical engineering, chairs the Program Review Council for the 2006-07 year. Marilyn McCoy, vice president for administration and planning, serves as vice-chair of the Council. Mai Lin P. Noffke, director of Program Review, oversees and coordinates the program review process.

This year's Program Review Council members, who serve as chairs and subcommittee members for units being reviewed this year, are:

Art History: Jeffrey C. Miller (chair), Senior Executive Associate Dean and Chief Operating Officer, Feinberg School of Medicine; Michal Ginsburg, Professor, French and Italian; Daniel Garrison, Professor, Classics

African-American Studies: Bruce Spencer (chair), Professor, Statistics; Thomas McDade, Associate Professor, Anthropology; Clare Cavanagh, Associate Professor, Slavic Languages & Literatures

Center for International and Comparative Studies: S. Sara Monoson (chair), Associate Professor, Political Science, and Chair, Classics; Martin Eichenbaum, Professor, Economics; Devora Grynspan, Director, Office of International Program Development

Weinberg College Administration: David Dranove (chair), Walter J. McNerney Distinguished Professor, Kellogg School Management and Strategy; Joseph Schofer, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Theresa Parker, Assistant Dean and Director of Finance, Kellogg  School

Anesthesiology: Kevin T. McVary, M.D. (chair), Professor, Urology; John Disterhoft, M.D., Professor, Physiology; Amy Paller, M.D., Professor and Chair, Dermatology

Neurological Surgery: William L. Lowe, Jr., M.D. (chair), Professor, Endocrinology; William Pearce, M.D., Professor, Vascular Surgery; Laurie Zoloth, Professor, Center for Bioethics, Science and Society

Neurology: Richard P. Honack, Chief Marketing Officer, Kellogg School; Jon Levine, Professor, Neurobiology and Physiology; Dixon Kaufman, M.D., Professor, FSM Transplant Surgery

Research Operations and Planning Group (including the Office of the Vice President, Office for Research Development, Office for Research Information Systems, Office for Research Operations and Planning, and the Institutional Review Board of the OPRS): M. Christine Stock, M.D. (chair), James E. Eckenhoff Professor of Anesthesiology and Chair, Anesthesiology; Rex Chisholm, Director, Center for Genetic Medicine; John Kessler, Benjamin Boshes Professor, Neurology; Vinayak Dravid, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering; Robert Paul Magee, Professor, Accounting Information and Management

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