Information About the Deans
Debasish (Deba) Dutta, Dean
Debasish (Deba) Dutta is Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate College, and Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and a Professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering. He is a Scholar-in-Residence at the National Academy of Engineering, leading a national study on the lifelong learning needs of engineering professionals. During 2004-2007 he served at the National Science Foundation as Acting Director of the Division of Graduate Education, IGERT Program Director and as Advisor in the Office of Assistant Director, Education and Human Resources. He played a key role in the development of NSF’s Cyberinfrastructure Strategy (Vision for 21st Century Discovery) chairing its Learning and Workforce Development sub-committee.
Dutta received his PhD from Purdue University in 1989, and was on the faculty at the University of Michigan from 1989-2008. He serves on the GRE Board, the Board of Illinois 21, a not-for-profit consortium for K-12 education, and on the editorial boards of several journals. A Fellow of ASME, he co-founded the IFIP International PLM Conference and has been the William Mong Scholar at the University of Hong Kong and a Guest Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. He is a member of AAAS, ASEE and SME.
Associate Deans
William G. Buttlar, Associate Dean
Dr. Buttlar is a Professor and Director of Online and Blended Programs in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois. He had received numerous teaching and research awards, including the Rose Award for Teaching Excellence (2004) and the Narbey Khachaturian Faculty Scholar Award, (2005-present). He has over 150 publications in the area of asphalt materials and pavements and over 30 invited presentations and keynote lectures. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Road Materials and Pavement Design.
His research specializes in the areas of asphalt materials, performance-related testing, pavement modeling and mechanics, and sustainable pavement solutions. Recent work in Dr. Buttlar’s group has led to the development of a new fracture test for asphalt concrete at low temperatures, called the disk-shaped compact tension test, or DC(T), which is now specified in ASTM D7313-07b. Dr. Buttlar’s research portfolio includes support from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the National Science Foundation, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the Federal Aviation Administration, the O’Hare Modernization Project, and industry. Dr. Buttlar is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Illinois. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Penn State University in the area of Pavements and Materials in 1996.
Areas within the Graduate College:
- Academic Programs - Graduate programs and policies (courses, degrees, minors, concentrations, etc.) and program review. Executive Committee and Program sub-committee meetings.
- Online Programs and Degrees – Committee on Extended Education and External Degrees (new program development and review)
- Professional Science Masters (PSM) – Program development and oversight
Oversees: PSM, Graduate & Professional Admissions
Rayvon Fouché, Associate Dean
Rayvon Fouché is an Associate Professor of History, Research Associate Professor in the Information Trust Institute, and a faculty affiliate of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies. He has authored or edited three books exploring the multiple intersections and relationships between cultural representation, racial identification, and technological design. Grants and awards from the Illinois Informatics Institute, Illinois Program for the Research in Humanities, Center for Advanced Study, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation have supported his research and teaching.
Fouché received a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. from Cornell University in the interdisciplinary field of Science & Technology Studies, and completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in African and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining the faculty in 2006, he taught at Purdue University and Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Areas within the Graduate College:
- Diversity Initiatives - Development and implementation of campus wide initiatives to broaden participation of underrepresented minorities in graduate education.
- Interdisciplinary Initiatives - Development and implementation of formal and informal structures to enhance interdisciplinary opportunities for graduate students (e.g., Focal Point); IGERT competitions
- Graduate Fellowships – Campus competitions, outreach to foundation
Oversees: Educational Equity Programs, Fellowships
Andrea Golato, Associate Dean
Andrea Golato is an Associate Professor in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. She is an affiliated faculty member in the Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) Program, the European Union Center, the Center for Translation Studies, and the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Her active research program in conversation analysis explores the interconnections between interaction, culture and grammar. She has advised numerous graduate students in German and within the wider SLATE community, and has received the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring. Andrea holds a Diplom in Translation Studies from the Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz-Germersheim and a Ph.D. in German Applied Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Areas within the Graduate College:
- Academic Programs - All aspects related to graduate program management (courses, degrees, minors, concentrations, etc.) and program review. Executive Committee and Program sub-committee meetings.
- Mentoring & Research on Graduate Education - Develop programs to improve mentoring and to assess graduate education effectiveness along nationally accepted metrics such as time to degree, attrition, etc.
- International Experiences & Programs - Development and implementation of institutional approaches to provide international experiences to graduate students.
Oversees: Career Services, Graduate Student Academic Services, Liaison to Senate Ed Pol
Assistant Deans
Rebecca Bryant, Assistant Dean
Rebecca Bryant joined the Graduate College in May 2000. As Assistant Dean and Director of Career Services, she provides operational oversight and leadership for the Thesis Office, Postdoctoral Affairs, and Career Services. In the past several years, she has led initiatives to implement Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD), to enable August graduation for doctoral students, and to assess the needs of Illinois postdoctoral scholars. She oversees the timely processing of 1400 doctoral committees and more than 1200 thesis and dissertation deposits annually.In addition, Dean Bryant individually advises graduate students and postdoctoral scholars on career planning and job searching, and oversees the planning and presentation of numerous workshops and events for students, postdocs, and faculty, including the Graduate College’s mentoring workshop for faculty. She is an active member of the Graduate Career Consortium and has served as a contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Bryant attended Butler University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), and earned her PhD in musicology from the University of Illinois. She previously served on the University of Illinois's UI Integrate Project, leading the design and implementation of pre-registration processes.
Anne Kopera, Assistant Dean
Anne Kopera joined the Graduate College in September 2007. As Assistant Dean she is responsible for Graduate Student Academic Services (GSAS). GSAS provides services to currently enrolled graduate students and graduate programs in the areas of registration, records, student petitions, special situations, and conflict resolution.
A native of Chicago, Kopera completed her A.B., M.A. (both in English) and M. Ed. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She worked for NETCHE, a consortium of small Colleges in Nebraska, providing career and academic support services. She then coordinated advising services for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she eventually served as Director of the Arts and Sciences Advising Center and Assistant Dean for Advising Services.
Deborah Richie, Executive Assistant Dean
Deborah Richie began her career at Illinois in 1988 and joined the Graduate College in October 2001. As Executive Assistant Dean, her primary responsibility is the administration of campus assistantship and fellowship policies. In this role, Richie works with the Fellowship Board to administer campus-level graduate fellowship and grant programs totaling some $3 million. Richie serves as the Institutional representative for a number of externally funded fellowship programs, including the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois programs. As an affiliated faculty member in the Higher Education Program in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, Richie teaches, advises students and serves on doctoral committees. She is past-president of the Illinois Association of Graduate Schools (IAGS), serves on the Midwest Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Membership Committee and serves as Review Panel Chair for the AAUW Career Development Grant program. Richie received her Ed.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and master's degree from New York University.