Dr. Dawn Neill appointed as Interim Vice President for Research

R-EDGE welcomed Dr. Dawn Neill as interim Vice President for Research on May 1, 2023.

Dawn has served as administrator in charge (AIC) for Research, Economic Development, and Graduate Education since September 12, 2022, and is a professor of anthropology in the Interdisciplinary Studies in Liberal Arts Department. 

Since beginning as the administrator in charge for R-EDGE, Dawn has provided outstanding leadership and partnership to the campus and has worked diligently to enhance campus opportunities and funding for research, scholarly and creative activities. This includes developing and implementing the Proposal Development Program to provide faculty release time to develop grant proposals; and working collaboratively with the deans and the office of the provost to develop and implement the Teacher-Scholar Model mini-grant program to broaden the scope of internal funding in support of the Teacher-Scholar Model. She has worked to align the R-EDGE division with campus priorities, including Cal Poly’s semester conversion; staging the implementation of an electronic research administration software system beginning in Fall 2023; and restructuring the R-EDGE staffing model to better support research, scholarly and creative activity across campus. 

Previously Dawn served as the director of research engagement and internationalization in the College of Liberal Arts. She previously chaired the Cal Poly Grants Review Committee and was a member of the research advisory council for R-EDGE. 

Dawn received her B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from Louisiana State University. She earned her M.S. in nutritional sciences and her Ph.D. in biocultural anthropology from the University of Washington.