Personal Mention

Ayana Ledford has been named the Dietrich College’s first full-time associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion. Over the past three years, Ledford’s energy and commitment to community engagement have helped to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture at the Dietrich College and her appointment recognizes the progress she has made. “Ayana has provided thoughtful and informed leadership which has already meaningfully moved the needle on faculty hiring, diversifying our graduate student population and on helping us create effective teams at the department level,” said Dietrich College Dean Richard Scheines. “It goes almost without saying that we have much, much more work to do, but I am extremely grateful to have Ayana's help in doing it.” In 2006, Ledford joined CMU’s Heinz College as the founding executive director of the Program for Research & Outreach on Gender Equality in Society (PROGRESS). PROGRESS’ vision is to pursue gender equity and foster positive societal change for all women and girls through education, partnerships and research. She later assumed a split appointment as director of diversity and inclusion for the Heinz and Dietrich colleges, where she led the development of their strategic plans for diversity, equity and inclusion. Ledford will continue to lead PROGRESS, which is now a part of the Dietrich College. Learn more about Ledford.

Prasad Tetali has been named the Alexander M. Knaster Professor and head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Tetali comes to Carnegie Mellon from Georgia Tech, where he has been a member of the School of Mathematics faculty since 1994 and held a joint appointment in the College of Computing since 2000. There, he was a Regents’ Professor and director of the algorithms, combinatorics and optimization Ph.D. program. Tetali’s research focuses on probability theory, discrete mathematics and approximation algorithms. He has published more than 100 research papers and given numerous invited lectures in his fields of expertise. Among his research honors, Tetali was named a fellow of both the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Tetali earned his bachelor’s degree from Andhra University in India, his master’s degree in computer science and automation from the Indian Institute of Science and his doctoral degree from New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Tetali succeeds Tom Bohman, who is returning to the faculty to focus on his research and teaching after being department head for 10 years. Learn more about Tetali.