UC Davis Professors Joanna Chiu and Andrew Whitehead have been appointed as the new chairs of the Departments of Entomology and Nematology and Environmental Toxicology, respectively. Mary Delany has also been appointed as interim chair for the Department of Human Ecology. As the academic year gets underway, these visionary leaders are set to steer their departments toward groundbreaking research, interdisciplinary collaborations and exceptional experiences for students.

Molecular geneticist and physiologist Joanna Chiu started July 1 as chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, which is the study of insects and roundworms. She succeeds Steve Nadler, who held the position since 2016. Chiu first joined the department in 2010 and became vice chair in 2016.

During her time with the department, she’s most proud of the work she’s done as chair of the Entomology Graduate Program. Together with her colleagues, Chiu believes they have made the program a welcoming and supportive environment for graduate students. She plans to bring that same dedication to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for everyone in the department.

“My goals include enhancing engagement of faculty, students and staff within the department and building an inclusive and welcoming community, while also improving the educational experiences of students and trainees and supporting the research and teaching visions of the faculty so our department can continue to conduct cutting edge and impactful research as well as address state and global challenges,” Chiu said.

At the helm of ETOX

Professor Andrew Whitehead started August 1 as chair of the Department of Environmental Toxicology, which focuses on how pollutants and toxic substances enter and move through the environment, and affect living organisms and ecosystems. He succeeds Professor Robert Rice, who held the position since 2014.

Whitehead, who earned his Ph.D. from UC Davis, has been with the department since 2012 and before that was an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Louisiana State University, where he worked for seven years.

Whitehead is proud of the work the department does to apply cutting-edge techniques in the field and lab to understand the life cycle of diverse contaminants. While his department is one of the only environmental toxicology programs in the country, Whitehead hopes to expand the program.

“I think there’s limited awareness of the program and of what kind of jobs or career you can have with this degree, so I want to help raise that awareness more and grow our major,” Whitehead said. “Last year, we started a new seminar, ETX 190, and it’s about careers in environmental toxicology. The feedback we got from students was overwhelmingly positive.”

The department is planning a celebration to commemorate its 50th anniversary, which Whitehead said will be a great opportunity to reconnect with alumni and pay tribute to the program’s enduring legacy.

Guiding the Human Ecology team

Professor Emerita Mary Delany is guiding the Department of Human Ecology as interim chair. She replaces Leigh Ann Simmons, who will be leaving at the end of October to join the faculty at the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Delany first joined UC Davis in 1995 as an assistant professor of developmental genetics, which at the time, was a joint appointment with the Departments of Avian Sciences and Animal Science (the two departments merged in 1997). During her 25 years of research and teaching, she served as chair of the Department of Animal Science from 2005-2009. She also previously served as associate dean (2009-2012), interim dean (2012-2014) and executive associate dean (2014-2019) of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Delany retired in 2020 and is looking forward to working with faculty, staff and students in her new role.

“Human Ecology is a department with impressive research, teaching, service and outreach activities across three dynamic academic units and their aligned centers, undergraduate majors and graduate groups,” Delany said. “I feel very fortunate that I know so many of the people in Human Ecology and the college, so returning to campus is an honor, and has the feel, for me, of ‘coming home.’”