Shaily Menon, Ph.D.

Shaily is engaged in initiatives related to interdisciplinary and innovative programs, supporting diversity and inclusion efforts, and fostering community partnerships. Her recent work includes facilitating the launch of a University Interdisciplinary Collaborative housing a new undergraduate program in Game Development and Interactive Media and a graduate program in Information Science.

Previously, she served for four years as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University, where she facilitated and nurtured partnerships with organizations such as the Barnes Foundation, Global Philadelphia, Mural Arts, and Campus Philly, and hosted a biotech startup on campus for student internship opportunities in translational medicine and entrepreneurship. During 2015-16, Shaily was an ACE Fellow in the President’s Office at San Francisco State University. Following her fellowship year, she led two special project assignments in the Office of the Provost on Community Engagement and Design Thinking for Social Innovation at Grand Valley State University. She was an Associate Dean for Research, Facilities Planning, Strategic Planning, and Community Engagement in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Grand Valley State University. She also served as an inclusion advocate, co-PI of NSF S-STEM and NSF ADVANCE projects, mentor to department chairs, a trained mediator, member of the University Strategic Positioning Task Force, and for six years as Department Chair of Biology.

Shaily serves on the board of directors of two national organizations: the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) and Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE). She recently published a co-edited book of essays, So You Want to Be a Dean: Pathways to the Deanship. Her teaching and research have focused on environmental ethics, conservation biology, global change, systems dynamics, and spatial modeling. She has also worked on collaborative and interdisciplinary research on global change (land-use change, sea-level rise, and climate change) with students, faculty, and non-profit organizations both locally and internationally.