Kristi Upson-Saia serves as the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. In this role, she oversees the daily operations of Academic Affairs and is the point person for the Dean’s Office on all departmental and faculty matters.
She coordinates departmental course planning and staffing requests, as well as course schedules. In terms of personnel, she oversees faculty teaching loads, faculty searches and hiring, onboarding new faculty, faculty start-up funds, the Joint Labor Management Committee (NTT faculty), and works with HR on faculty leaves (parental, medical, and personal). As needed, she manages conflict resolution.
She works with the Dean of the College, Facilities, Finance, and Operations departments to set the priorities for academic facilities and to coordinate renovation and building projects. She oversees faculty offices, labs, and studios.
She oversees faculty development efforts, managing faculty research funds and coordinating internal research grant and fellowship applications, as well as supporting the Center for Teaching Excellence and Center for Research and Scholarship Faculty Directors to provide programming and resources for pedagogical development and research support. As needed, she mentors individual faculty through the tenure and promotion process.
She partners with the Sponsored Research Office to support individual faculty grant/fellowship applications and partners with the Office of Strategic Initiatives and Institutional Advancement to pursue funding from Foundations.
Upson-Saia is the David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professor of Religious Studies and her most recent research has been on the history of medicine, health, and healing in the ancient Mediterranean.