{"id":21445,"date":"2022-08-15T10:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T14:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/?p=19341"},"modified":"2022-08-15T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T14:30:07","slug":"college-of-sciences-dean-chris-mcgahan-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/news\/2022\/08\/college-of-sciences-dean-chris-mcgahan-to-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"College of Sciences Dean Chris McGahan to Retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

College of Sciences Dean Chris McGahan will retire effective January 1, 2023, after dedicating 40 years of service to NC State. Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden made the announcement today. John Blondin, Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of physics and senior associate dean for administration in the College of Sciences, will serve as interim dean.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChris\u2019 passion for the sciences and her decades of dedication to NC State have made her an invaluable asset to our university,\u201d said Arden. \u201cHer legacy gives our faculty, staff and students – both present and future – a solid foundation of research, teaching and service to build upon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McGahan was named dean of the college in November 2017. Since her appointment, she has played an instrumental role in advancing the college\u2019s teaching, research and innovation efforts. This includes the interdisciplinary Genetics and Genomics Initiative, a forerunner of the universitywide Genetics and Genomics Academy. <\/span>She led the development of the College of Sciences\u2019 first strategic plan from 2020-21 <\/span>and helped the college raise $71 million during the recently completed Think and Do the Extraordinary campaign, $11 million above the campaign goal<\/span>. Today, the College of Sciences encompasses more than <\/span>4,100<\/span> students, <\/span>580<\/span> faculty, staff and postdoctoral researchers, and<\/span> $40 million in an<\/span>nual research expenditures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have had a wonderful career at NC State and I have made many lifelong friendships here. I had offers to go to other universities, but never considered them as I knew I was in the best place. Opportunities came my way here to give back and to hold leadership positions and I am very grateful to have had those chances,\u201d said McGahan. \u201cI offer my thanks to all of the people who helped me on this path, university leadership, faculty, staff and students. I am appreciative to all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McGahan joined the College of Veterinary Medicine in 1983 and served as head of the Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences for 14 years prior to being named dean of the college in <\/span>2017<\/span>. McGahan\u2019s tremendous and incredibly productive research career has revolved around the fields of ocular physiology and pharmacology, with a focus on studying the biochemistry of the ocular lens and retina. For more than 30 years, she has been funded by a National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She was named one of NC State\u2019s 125 Transformational Women by the Council on the Status of Women, and was part of the university\u2019s inaugural Research Leadership Academy class. She is also past president of the International Society for Eye Research, an organization focused on exploring ideas related to contemporary topics in eye and vision research. McGahan served many years on the NIH study sections, and finally a 4 year term on the National Advisory Eye Council (NIH) and co-authored\u00a0 a 10-year plan for the National Eye Institute (2010-2020).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McGahan received her doctorate in pharmacology from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine at the City University of New York and did postdoctoral work at the Harkness Eye Institute at Columbia University\u2019s College of Physicians and Surgeons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon retirement, McGahan plans on pursuing volunteer service work in areas of need, such as food insecurity and K-12 STEM education. She also looks forward to spending more time with her family, especially her grandchildren.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A celebration of McGahan\u2019s years of service will be held <\/span>later this fall<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to have had a visionary leader like Chris at the helm of one of NC State\u2019s largest colleges for nearly five years. She has helped build our reputation as a R1 university and is an incredibly talented faculty member, and I am confident in the College of Sciences\u2019 future direction due to her leadership. She will be greatly missed, but we all wish her the best in the next chapter of her life,\u201d said Chancellor Randy Woodson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arden will soon make an announcement on the search for a new dean for the College of Sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"College of Sciences Dean Chris McGahan will retire effective January 1, 2023, after dedicating 40 years of service to NC State. Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden made the announcement today. John Blondin, Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of physics and senior associate dean for administration in the College of Sciences, will serve as interim dean.<\/span>\n\n\u201cChris\u2019 passion for the sciences and her decades of dedication to NC State have made her an invaluable asset to our university,\u201d said Arden. \u201cHer legacy gives our faculty, staff and students - both present and future - a solid foundation of research, teaching and service to build upon.\u201d<\/span>\n\nMcGahan was named dean of the college in November 2017. Since her appointment, she has played an instrumental role in advancing the college\u2019s teaching, research and innovation efforts. This includes the interdisciplinary Genetics and Genomics Initiative, a forerunner of the universitywide Genetics and Genomics Academy. <\/span>She led the development of the College of Sciences\u2019 first strategic plan from 2020-21 <\/span>and helped the college raise $71 million during the recently completed Think and Do the Extraordinary campaign, $11 million above the campaign goal<\/span>. Today, the College of Sciences encompasses more than <\/span>4,100<\/span> students, <\/span>580<\/span> faculty, staff and postdoctoral researchers, and<\/span> $40 million in an<\/span>nual research expenditures.<\/span>\n\n\u201cI have had a wonderful career at NC State and I have made many lifelong friendships here. I had offers to go to other universities, but never considered them as I knew I was in the best place. Opportunities came my way here to give back and to hold leadership positions and I am very grateful to have had those chances,\u201d said McGahan. \u201cI offer my thanks to all of the people who helped me on this path, university leadership, faculty, staff and students. I am appreciative to all.\u201d<\/span>\n\nMcGahan joined the College of Veterinary Medicine in 1983 and served as head of the Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences for 14 years prior to being named dean of the college in <\/span>2017<\/span>. McGahan\u2019s tremendous and incredibly productive research career has revolved around the fields of ocular physiology and pharmacology, with a focus on studying the biochemistry of the ocular lens and retina. For more than 30 years, she has been funded by a National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nShe was named one of NC State\u2019s 125 Transformational Women by the Council on the Status of Women, and was part of the university\u2019s inaugural Research Leadership Academy class. She is also past president of the International Society for Eye Research, an organization focused on exploring ideas related to contemporary topics in eye and vision research. McGahan served many years on the NIH study sections, and finally a 4 year term on the National Advisory Eye Council (NIH) and co-authored\u00a0 a 10-year plan for the National Eye Institute (2010-2020).\u00a0<\/span>\n\nMcGahan received her doctorate in pharmacology from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine at the City University of New York and did postdoctoral work at the Harkness Eye Institute at Columbia University\u2019s College of Physicians and Surgeons.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nUpon retirement, McGahan plans on pursuing volunteer service work in areas of need, such as food insecurity and K-12 STEM education. She also looks forward to spending more time with her family, especially her grandchildren.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nA celebration of McGahan\u2019s years of service will be held <\/span>later this fall<\/span>.<\/span>\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to have had a visionary leader like Chris at the helm of one of NC State\u2019s largest colleges for nearly five years. She has helped build our reputation as a R1 university and is an incredibly talented faculty member, and I am confident in the College of Sciences\u2019 future direction due to her leadership. She will be greatly missed, but we all wish her the best in the next chapter of her life,\u201d said Chancellor Randy Woodson.<\/span>\n\nArden will soon make an announcement on the search for a new dean for the College of Sciences.<\/span>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College of Sciences Dean Chris McGahan will retire effective January 1, 2023, after dedicating 40 years of service to NC State. Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden made the announcement today. John Blondin, Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor of physics and senior associate dean for administration in the College of Sciences, will serve as interim dean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,19,7,25],"tags":[268,261],"class_list":["post-21445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-announcements-homepage","category-faculty-and-staff","category-newswire","tag-administrative-searches","tag-college-of-sciences"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}