The following is the text of an email sent on August 1, 2022.
We are pleased to share that Dr. Patricia Silveyra has agreed to assume a new role as the interim chairperson for the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health beginning August 1, 2022 to allow a brief period of overlap with outgoing chair Professor Macdonald Gibson. Dr. Silveyra is an associate professor and the Anthony D. Pantaleoni Eminent Scholar in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.
Dr. Silveyra completed her Ph.D. at the University of Buenos Aires and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Penn State University College of Medicine, where she also completed a graduate certificate in Applied Bioinformatics. Prior to her arrival at the School of Public Health-Bloomington in 2020, Dr. Silveyra served as an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and as director of the Biobehavioral Laboratory in the UNC School of Nursing.
Dr. Silveyra is a renowned scholar who focuses on inflammatory lung disease. The Silveyra Lab studies the role of sex hormones and steroid hormone receptor signaling in mechanisms of lung inflammation, with an emphasis on asthma. She currently serves as the co-chair for New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the National Academies and has been reappointed to serve on the Board of Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
"I am very honored to have been appointed to serve in this role,” says Dr. Silveyra. “I am excited to work with our talented faculty and staff to continue to develop the next generation of scientists and leaders in environmental and occupational health. I look forward to fostering collaborations and creating new and exciting avenues to advance the department’s mission of understanding and preventing environmentally related diseases."
The position of department chair is one of the most challenging in academia. It involves leading by example in excellence in scholarship. It involves managing the present while preparing for the future. It requires that one encourage, advise, support, cajole, and inspire. It requires integrating the diverse perspectives of many into a unified and coherent plan to achieve a common vision. It involves caring for, mentoring, and learning from students, staff, faculty, alumni, and many others still.
I have had the privilege of watching Professor Silveyra demonstrate her facility in each of these areas. I am confident that she will shine in her new role as interim department chair and am grateful that she has so enthusiastically accepted the appointment.
Sincerely,
David B. Allison, Ph.D.
Dean, Distinguished Professor, Provost Professor