In July, Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels named Beverly Wendland, professor and chair of the Department of Biology, interim dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Wendland succeeds former James B. Knapp Dean Katherine Newman, who is now provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

A Johns Hopkins faculty member since 1998, Wendland is familiar with the Krieger School and its operations. She became chair of the Department of Biology in 2009, leading faculty, staff, and students during a period of renewal.

Throughout her tenure at Johns Hopkins, Wendland has been a mentor and collaborator for graduate and undergraduate students. An advocate for training future scientists to engage the power of interdisciplinary research, she was a member of the lab advisory committee during the construction of the new Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories, designed to foster collaboration across Homewood’s scientific community.

Wendland earned her bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego, and her doctoral degree in neurosciences from Stanford University. She joined the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins after completing her postdoctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego.

“We look forward to Dr. Wendland’s leadership of the Krieger School during this next phase of its growth and development,” President Daniels said in a message to faculty, staff, and students in mid-May.

A search committee for the next James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School is being led by Provost Robert Lieberman and includes representatives from across Johns Hopkins. “The search committee’s task of finding the best candidates to serve as the Krieger School’s next dean is of utmost importance,” said Daniels.