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Chancellor Javier Reyes has announced that Tilman Wolf and Nandita Mani have been named Deputy Chancellors and that Michelle Goncalves is being promoted to Chief of Staff. The announcement was made in the email below, which was sent to the university community on June 3.

Dear UMass Community,

I am pleased to share the news that I have appointed Tilman Wolf and Nandita Mani as Deputy Chancellors.

These two talented colleagues will be joining the Chancellor’s Office to advance our mission and pursue our strategic goals in service to the commonwealth. Their deep experience, skills and campus relationships will serve our community well.

In addition, Michelle Goncalves, currently deputy chief of staff, is being promoted to Chief of Staff. She succeeds Rolanda Burney, who is departing UMass to accept a position at Emory University. Thank you, Rolanda, for your service and the great work you did while being an integral part of the leadership of UMass Amherst.

Tilman Wolf, currently senior vice provost and associate chancellor for space and capital planning, will become Deputy Chancellor for Operational and Organizational Strategies and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. He will retain his tenured faculty position as professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

As Deputy Chancellor, he will serve as a key partner to me in evaluating and executing projects and initiatives that advance operations, the administration’s organizational impact and the infrastructure of the campus. His primary focus will be on the planning and allocation of resources and their impact and alignment with the university’s strategic plan. Tilman will work closely with the Provost, the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, and other vice chancellors and their units. He will oversee an evolving portfolio of responsibilities as new initiatives such as those related to flexible learning, carbon reduction, and space and capital planning are explored, launched and completed.

Tilman joined UMass Amherst in August 2002 as a faculty member in electrical and computer engineering (ECE). Since then, he has served in several administrative roles,  including associate dean of engineering and interim department head for biomedical engineering. He has served on the provost’s leadership team for academic affairs since 2017. He received his doctoral degree in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Nandita Mani, currently serving as dean of University Libraries, will assume the role of Deputy Chancellor for Institutional Effectiveness. In this position, Nandita will continually oversee and enhance the overall effectiveness and efficiency of institutional programs and initiatives and oversee the assessment and progress of the strategic plan on campus.

Nandita joined UMass Amherst in August 2022 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as associate university librarian for health sciences and director of the Health Sciences Library. In addition to having a longstanding career in the health sciences, she has participated in curriculum transformation efforts at UNC’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy, the University of Michigan Ann Arbor Medical School and has established data and research impact services to highlight institutional collaboration and opportunities. Nandita received her doctoral degree in instructional technology from Wayne State University in Detroit.

The Deputy Chancellors will work together with other key campus units to ensure data-informed decision-making and long-term planning.

Michelle Goncalves, the new Chief of Staff, has worked at UMass since 2006 in a variety of positions in public policy, political science and the Office of the Chancellor. She is a recipient of the Roy J. Zuckerberg Leadership Prize from the UMass President’s Office and has been recognized with Chancellor Citation Awards three times. Michelle received a master’s of public policy and administration from UMass.

Please join me in welcoming our colleagues to their new roles as we begin planning for an important year ahead.

Sincerely,
Chancellor Javier A. Reyes