Patricia A. Turner has been named vice provost for undergraduate studies at the University of California, Davis, effective Oct. 1. A scholar of African American studies with leadership experience at the program, college, campus and state levels, the 43-year-old professor will be responsible for guiding and coordinating undergraduate academic programs. As such, she will serve as the principal liaison between the administration and faculty on undergraduate program matters. Turner will replace English professor Peter Dale, who served in the office for six years before announcing last fall that he would return to full-time teaching and scholarship next academic year. UC Davis is fortunate to have someone with Turner's commitment, experience and skills in this key leadership position, according to Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Grey. "Chancellor Vanderhoef and I are so pleased that Professor Turner has accepted our invitation to be the next vice provost for undergraduate studies," he said. "She is an accomplished scholar of national prominence, a superb teacher and an exceptionally effective campus citizen." Turner, who has directed the African American and African studies program since 1997, was selected following a search initiated in the spring that considered candidates from within the University of California. An instructor with a "particular fondness for teaching first-quarter freshmen," Turner has focused on undergraduate teaching since she joined the faculty in 1990. She has taught large General Education courses with up to 130 students as well as a more intimate Davis Honors Challenge seminar, working with 13 highly motivated students. Turner says she is committed to strengthening the mentoring relationship between UC Davis faculty and undergraduates, motivated by her six-year tenure as the faculty director of the Mentorship in Undergraduate Research in Agriculture, Letters and Science program. The program requires participating students to work closely with faculty members, attend a research-presentation seminar during each quarter of participation and deliver a 10-minute paper on their research. "Through my work with the MURALS students, I have been able to increase my understanding of the range of research being conducted by UC Davis faculty, and I have been a witness to the willingness of well over 150 of my colleagues to take on a minimum two-quarter responsibility for mentoring a student," Turner says. Besides her administrative post as director of African American and African studies, Turner directed the American studies program for the 1996-97 academic year and was the convening director in 1997-98 for programs and a department in ethnic/cultural studies, which include African American and African studies, American studies, Asian American studies, Chicana/Chicano studies, women's studies and Native American studies. She has served for the past three years on the California Council for the Humanities, both helping decide who will receive funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and organizing private fund-raising activities to support the council's work in the state. Turner has been an active campus citizen, volunteering her time to serve as a member of the committee charged by then Acting Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef with reorganizing the College of Letters and Science in 1994. She also serves on Provost's Academic Advisory Council, the group that develops recommendations for the allocation of new faculty positions created through projected student-body growth. A graduate of State University College of Oneonta in New York state, Turner said she would like to maximize the resources at UC Davis so that students here could have as satisfying undergraduate experience as she had. "I see this position as an opportunity to influence the direction of undergraduate education at UC Davis in order to guarantee that our students receive an outstanding undergraduate experience," she said. Turner believes that the undergraduate experience should include three elements: excellent training in research methods and writing relevant to their chosen field, course work that fosters strong critical-thinking skills and General Education courses that create a healthy respect for other disciplines. She said the undergraduate experience also should build confidence so that students graduate prepared to pursue challenging careers while being instilled with the belief that their education will be a lifelong process. Following her undergraduate degree from Oneonta, Turner went to UC Berkeley where she earned a master's degree in 1981 and a doctoral degree in 1985 in rhetoric. She was an assistant professor in the Black Studies Department at University of Massachusetts, Boston, from 1985 to 1990 before joining UC Davis as an assistant professor. She became a full professor in 1997. Turner has written two books and numerous journal articles. Her book "Ceramic Uncles and Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture" (Anchor Books, 1994) was named by the Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Human Rights as an outstanding book on the subject of human rights in North America in 1995. She also wrote "I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture" (University of California Press, 1993). Editor's note: A color or black and white photo may be obtained electronically by contacting Amy Rafferty at (530) 752-9836 or aerafferty@ucdavis.edu.