Machelle T. Pardue, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory (BME), has been appointed as the department’s first associate chair for faculty development.

Pardue, who has been with the Coulter Department since 2015, is a research career scientist at the Atlanta VA Healthcare System and also serves as executive associate director of the Atlanta Veteran’s Association (VA) Center for Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation. Her research program is focused on understanding the mechanisms of vision loss and developing treatments, with the ultimate goal of restoring visual function. She has a track record of creating professional development programs, faculty mentoring, grant review working groups, faculty community groups, and disseminating pilot programs at Emory, Tech and the Atlanta VA, with experience in recruiting and retaining a diverse corps of faculty and staff. 

The new leadership position was created, according to BME Chair Susan Margulies, “to achieve our goals of increasing faculty diversity; helping all faculty develop and thrive as leaders, scholars and educators; and enriching our cohesive culture of community.”

Margulies adds, “we have created a one-department culture across two campuses, and we promote faculty diversity and equity and inclusion. While we are proud have 24 percent women, six percent Black, and three percent Latino faculty evenly distributed across campuses, we have more work to do in the Coulter Department.”

Pardue says it’s an honor to fill an inaugural position focused on faculty development.

“I am passionate about mentoring and building a strong community of support for our faculty to succeed in all their endeavors,” she explains. “Dr. Margulies has already created several important initiatives for faculty development, like mentoring teams for junior faculty. I intend to continue to build upon these initiatives, being a strong advocate for each faculty member to reach tenure and promotion at all levels.  I look forward to hearing ideas and feedback on ways to support faculty development.”

The Coulter Department is a unique and flourishing public-private partnership between Emory University’s School of Medicine and Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering. As the largest Biomedical Engineering department in the U.S., Coulter has 70 tenure path faculty across two campuses, including 23 Assistant Professors.