Steering Committee

Jennifer Thigpen

Director of ADVANCE
Associate Professor of History

Dr. Jennifer Thigpen, Director of ADVANCE at WSU, oversees all the ADVANCE at WSU activities, coordinating events and trainings, as well as programs (i.e., the External Mentor, Transitions, and Leadership opportunities).  Jennifer meets monthly with the Departmental Liaisons, and every semester with the ADVANCE at WSU Steering Committee. She provides oversight for program development and faculty friendly initiatives and informs academic units regarding ADVANCE at WSU activities. Dr. Thigpen’s mission is to expand upon the excellent mentoring initiatives already in existence at WSU and to build collaborative relationships across campus.

Dori Borjesson

Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Dori Borjesson currently serves as a Professor and Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. She earned her veterinary degree from the University of California, Davis in 1995 and completed a residency at UC Davis in Clinical Pathology in 1999 followed by a Ph.D. in Comparative Pathology at the Center for Comparative Medicine, UC Davis, in 2002. She joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota for 4 years before returning to UC Davis as an Associate Professor in 2006, where she previously served as a Professor and the Department Chair in the School of Veterinary Medicine, Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology Department. She has served as the leader of the Integrative Pathobiology Graduate Group at UC Davis and is actively engaged in veterinary and graduate student curriculum development, teaching, and mentoring.

Dr. Borjesson is still active as a clinical pathologist and is engaged in clinical service and laboratory test development. She has served as Director of the Clinical Pathology service both at the University of Minnesota and at UC Davis. She directed the clinical Regenerative Medicine Laboratory and was the inaugural Director of the Veterinary Institute for Regenerative Cures (2015-2019) whose mission is to pioneer regenerative medicine cures for people and animals.

Her research focuses on mesenchymal stem cells and long-term immune cell reprogramming, including how stem cells modulate CD8 T cell function and phenotype, in vitro and in vivo. Her team works to define and develop naturally occurring animal models of disease to test cell therapies to improve animal health and inform human medical practice. She holds 2 patents in the area of mesenchymal stem cells and immunomodulation. She has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has been the recipient of the Zoetis Research Excellence award.

Douglas Call

Regents Professor and Senior Vice Provost, Washington State University 

Dr. Doug Call is a Regents Professor of molecular epidemiology in the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health (2012-present). He received his B.S. degree from WSU (wildlife management, 1987), his M.S. from Humboldt State University (wildlife management, 1990) and his PhD from WSU (zoology, 1997). After three years of postdoctoral training (Univ. of Michigan and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), he initiated an antimicrobial-resistance research program in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology (2000) and became a Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014 in recognition for his contributions to food and water safety, particularly through molecular epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in agricultural systems. He has trained 20 graduate students and published over 250 peer-reviewed papers with past and ongoing antimicrobial-resistance research within communities and hospitals in Tanzania, Kenya, and Guatemala with support from the CDC, NIH, NSF, and Wellcome Trust. In 2021 he received the Washington State University Sahlin Eminent Faculty Award in recognition of his scholarship and professional service. He currently serves as the secretary for the Board of Directors of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, as the director of the WSU-NIH T32 Protein Biotechnology Training Program, and as the Senior Vice Provost for Washington State University.

Debbie Compeau

Interim Dean, Carson College of Business 

Dr. Debbie Compeau was appointed interim dean of Washington State University’s Carson College of Business on July 1, 2023. She leads the college in its endeavor to be the model school of business for tomorrow’s land grant university. Compeau is dedicated to continue elevating the college as the first choice for business education in the Pacific Northwest. She strives to implement active learning methods, especially case-based learning, as one of the college’s points of distinction.

Prior to her appointment, Compeau was the college’s senior associate dean for faculty affairs and research. She is passionate about building the college’s reputation as a regular contributor of rigorous and influential research to academic disciplines and being recognized as the leading source of research insights and critical thinking about business.

Compeau’s own research seeks to understand and address complex issues related to the adoption, implementation, and use of information technologies in organizations, particularly health care organizations. She has taught information systems at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels, with a particular focus on IT strategy. She is an active case writer and case teacher and has conducted workshops on teaching with cases in the US, Canada, France, and Germany.

Compeau holds the Hubman Distinguished Professorship of Information Systems and is a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems. Prior to joining WSU, she held faculty positions in Canada at Western University (2000-2015), the University of Calgary (1998-2000), and Carleton University (1991-1998). She earned her doctorate in information systems from the Ivey Business School (Western University).

Compeau grew up in Canada and met her husband, Joe Compeau, at college. Joe is a professor in the Carson College’s Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship. They moved to the Palouse in 2015 to join WSU.

Catherine (Katie) Cooper

Associate Dean for Faculty, College of Art & Sciences

Dr. Catherine Cooper is a specialist in geodynamics, geophysics, and earth sciences, an associate professor in the School of the Environment, and has long been involved in leadership roles at the school, college, and University level. In her role as the Associate Dean for Faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS), Katie supports the recruitment, retention, and development of CAS faculty. She also often partners with the Provost’s Office on differing faculty-centric programs including the COACHE faculty work-life initiative and two Association of Public and Land-grant University sponsored projected focused on faculty retention. She’s also served in the past as a member of the CAS Executive Advisory Committee, chair of the University’s Salary Equity Task Force, Provost’s Liaison for the Association for Faculty Women, and an executive board member and past chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

Daryll DeWald

Chancellor, WSU Spokane Campus

Dr. Daryll DeWald joined Washington State University as Dean of the College of Sciences in January 2011 and became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences effective July 2012. He currently serves as the Chancellor of the Spokane Campus. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wyoming and his doctoral degree in biochemistry from Texas A&M University. He joined Utah State faculty in 1995 and became chair of the Biology department in 2006. As a biochemist, DeWald’s research programs and projects focus on synthetic biology, plant cell signaling and mammalian cell signaling. His work has explored the role of lipids that control cellular communication during plant stress, the regulation of cellular protein trafficking and how lipids regulate cancer cell metastasis.

Christopher Keane

Vice President for Research
Professor of Physics

Dr. Christopher Keane is Vice President for Research and Professor of Physics at Washington State University. He received a B.S. degree in Physics and a B.S. degree in Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Rochester in 1980. He received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Princeton University in 1986. Dr. Keane then joined the Inertial Confinement Fusion Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), performing computational and experimental research in x-ray lasers, inertial confinement fusion, and ultra-high intensity laser–matter interaction. He also serves on a number of national and international governmental advisory committees regarding controlled thermonuclear fusion and related science.

Laura Lavine

Professor – Department of Entomology

Dr. Laura Lavine is Assistant Director of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences Office of Research and a Professor in the Department of Entomology. A few of the highlights of her time at WSU include serving as interim Director of ADVANCE at WSU, President of the WSU Association for Faculty Women, and a proud member of the WSU Teaching Academy. Her research interests include the evolution of adaptation, especially concerning the development of the weapons of sexual selection and the evolution and management of insecticide resistance in crop pests. Her research is funded by the NSF and the USDA and she has over 50 publications in journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, and Science. 

Courtney Meehan

Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 

Dr. Courtney Meehan is the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a Professor of Anthropology at Washington State University.  She has previously served in various additional leadership positions, including as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences from 2018-2024. She earned her MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Washington State University. As Interim Dean, she leads the College of Arts and Sciences’ 19 departments and programs, and 18 research centers and institutes across six campuses. She is dedicated to the educational, research, and service mission of the College, which provides over 50 percent of the educational instruction for the system and is a leader in WSU’s research, scholarship, and creative arts enterprise. Dr. Meehan is also a biological and cultural anthropologist, specializing in maternal-infant health and human milk composition.

Partha Pratim Pande

Interim Dean and Professor and Boeing Centennial Chair in Computer Engineering

Dr. Partha Pratim Pande is a professor and holder of the Boeing Centennial Chair in computer engineering at the school of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, USA. He is currently the Interim Dean of the Voiland college of Engineering and Architecture. His current research interests are novel interconnect architectures for manycore chips, on-chip wireless communication networks, heterogeneous architectures, and ML for EDA. Dr. Pande currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of IEEE Design and Test (D&T). He is on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on VLSI (TVLSI) and ACM Journal of Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems (JETC) and IEEE Embedded Systems letters. He was the technical program committee chair of IEEE/ACM Network-on-Chip Symposium 2015 and CASES (2019-2020). He also serves on the program committees of many reputed international conferences. He has won the NSF CAREER award in 2009. He is the winner of the Anjan Bose outstanding researcher award from the college of engineering, Washington State University in 2013. He is a fellow of IEEE.

Wendy Powers

Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences

Dr. Wendy Powers is the inaugural Cashup Davis Family Endowed Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences. Joining CAHNRS on Aug. 15, 2022, Powers embodies the land-grant mission through her collaborative work with agricultural producers and research peers nationwide.

As a scientist, Powers linked research discovery with outreach to the livestock industry, providing knowledge and tools to help producers reduce their environmental impacts while staying competitive and meeting growing consumer demand. She holds a doctorate in animal science and a master’s degree in dairy science from the University of Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Cornell University.

In Memoriam: Kelly Ward

Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Recognition 

Kelly Ward was the Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Recognition and Professor of Higher Education. She previously served as chair of the Department of Educational Leadership, Sport Studies, and Educational/Counseling Psychology.  Her administrative roles provided the opportunity for Dr. Ward to connect her research expertise to current problems of practice. At WSU, she had taught Administration of Higher Education, Critical Issues in Higher Education and Student Affairs, Student Services, Seminar in Higher Education, and College Teaching. She previously taught at Oklahoma State University and worked as an administrator and faculty member at the University of Montana. Dr. Ward’s input as a steering committee member was invaluable, the ADVANCE at WSU team will continue to focus on university issues that Kelly deemed important.

ADVANCE at WSU Lighty Building, Room 190F  P.O. Box 641061 Pullman, WA 99164-1061

 509-335-9739  Contact Us

© 2016 Washington State University | Accessibility | Policies | Copyright