Maura A. Ryan, associate dean for the humanities and faculty affairs in the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed vice president and associate provost for faculty affairs at the University. The appointment, effective Aug. 1, was made by Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., on the recommendation of Thomas G. Burish, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost.
A member of the theology faculty since 1993, Ryan is the John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C., Associate Professor of Christian Ethics. She previously served from 2001 to 2004 as an associate provost at Notre Dame.
Ryan replaces Daniel J. Myers, who recently was appointed provost at Marquette University. Her primary responsibilities will involve partnering with deans, department chairs, and others to address a multitude of issues affecting faculty life, ranging from the Dual Career Assistance Program to the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning.
Other duties will include overseeing faculty orientation activities and the procedures for evaluating teaching, handling faculty misconduct charges, and serving as the University’s point person with the regional accrediting organization. Currently, academic units reporting to this position include the Office of Digital Learning, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and the Snite Museum of Art. In addition, Ryan will be a member of the President’s Leadership Council.
“Maura has broad and deep administrative experience, is an accomplished scholar and teacher, and enjoys the trust and admiration of the faculty with whom she works,” Burish said. “She sets high standards and works with all around her to meet them. We are most fortunate to be able to welcome her back to the provost’s office.”
Ryan said, “I am pleased and honored to accept this new role. I look forward to working together with our faculty to advance Notre Dame’s teaching and research mission and to build a truly diverse and inclusive community.”
Ryan earned doctoral and master’s degrees in religious studies from Yale University, a master’s degree in theology from Boston College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Bonaventure University. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, she was a faculty member at the College of the Holy Cross, the University of New Haven, and Albertus Magnus College, as well as a visiting scholar in the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago.
Ryan’s primary scholarly interests are in the areas of bioethics and health policy, feminist ethics, and fundamental moral theology. She is the co-author of The Voice of the Voiceless: The Role of the Church in the Sudanese Civil War 1983-2005 and the author of Ethics and Economics of Assisted Reproduction: The Cost of Longing. She and fellow Notre Dame theologian Todd Whitmore were the co-editors of The Challenge of Global Stewardship: Roman Catholic Responses and she also co-edited A Just and True Love: Feminism at the Frontiers of Theological Ethics.
Ryan received a Henry Luce III Fellowship from the Association of Theological Schools in 2007-08 and served on the editorial board of The Cambridge Dictionary of Bioethics in 2010. She is the recipient of a Lilly Teaching Fellowship and received a John A. Kaneb Teaching Award from Notre Dame in 2001.
In addition to her teaching, research, and administrative work, Ryan has served on numerous University committees, including the Academic Council, the University Committee on Cultural Diversity, the University Committee on Women Faculty and Students and the University Task Force on Gay and Lesbian Student Needs.
Originally published by at news.nd.edu.