Dear Faculty and Staff,

I am pleased to announce that I have appointed the first 17 members of the new Faculty Council. As you know, in accordance with SB 37, Faculty Senate in its existing form had to be dissolved by Sept. 1. To ensure continued faculty participation, we formed bylaws for the creation of a Faculty Council in accordance with SB 37’s rules, which was approved by the Board of Regents last month.

We now have the following faculty members representing each University of Houston college, school and the UH Libraries:

Presiding Officer

• Elena Grigorenko, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Members:

• Chris Bronk, Associate Professor, Hobby School of Public Affairs
• Rex Buckles, Mike and Teresa Baker College Professor, UH Law Center
• Jodi Berger Cardoso, Jean Kantambu Latting College Professor, Graduate College of Social Work
• Hayan Charara, Instructional Associate Professor, Honors College
• Craig Glennie, Professor and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering
• Yoon Koh, Professor, Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership
• Rex Koontz, Moores Professor, School of Art, Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts
• Chin-Yo Lin, Associate Professor, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
• John O’Brien, Benedict-McFadden Professor, Department of Vision Sciences, College of Optometry
• Patrick Peters, Professor, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design
• April Peters-Hawkins, Professor, Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies, College of Education
• Kimberly Pilkinton, Clinical Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences, Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine
• James Douglas Thornton, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy, College of Pharmacy
• Shainy Varghese, Professor, Andy and Barbara Gessner College of Nursing
• Mea Warren, Associate Librarian, Assistant Head of Teaching and Learning, Libraries
• Vijay Yerramilli, C.T. Bauer Professor of Finance, Department of Finance, C.T. Bauer of College of Business

Next, 43 additional faculty will be elected by their peers to serve a one- or two-year term to complete our full 60-member Faculty Council. I thank each one of you who contributed to the formation of this important and impactful new council, including the task force who worked diligently over the summer, the faculty who provided feedback, our Board of Regents and the deans who nominated these initial members. Please join me in congratulating them on this new honor.

With warm regards,

Renu Khator