Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty Staff and Office Information

As provost and dean of the faculty, Martha Umphrey promotes and supports Amherst's academic mission, including excellence in teaching and the generation of new knowledge through the faculty's scholarship and creative work. As the chief academic officer of the college, she has primary responsibility for matters of academic policy and for the academic budget.  Provost Umphrey oversees the hiring and retention of faculty and broad pedagogical initiatives. She oversees the Amherst Center for Russian Culture, the Beneski Museum of Natural History, the Center for Community Engagement, the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, the Center for Strategic Learning, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Global Education Office, the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning, the Mead Art Museum, the Office of Fellowships, the Office of Institutional Research and Registrar Services,  the  Office of Sponsored Research and Foundation Relations, the Office of Sustainability, and the Robert Frost Library. The provost has joint responsibility for the Department of Physical Education and Athletics. She serves as the college’s Five College deputy.  

Provost Umphrey's research and teaching have addressed the interaction of law and culture, historically and theoretically, with particular emphases on speech and the First Amendment; the cultural life of trials; cultural representations of law in film and literature; American constitutional and criminal law in historical context; law, visuality, and performance;  and law, love, and mourning. Past president of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities, she has edited or co-edited twenty-eight books, including: Trial Films on Trial, (University of Alabama Press, 2018); To Kill a Mockingbird at 50: Race, Law, and Family in the American Imaginary (University of Massachusetts Press, 2013); Subjects of Responsibility: Framing Personhood in Modern Bureaucracies (Fordham University Press, 2011); and Trials International Library of Essays in Law and Society (London: Dartmouth/Ashgate Publishing, 2008). The provost is also co-editor of the longstanding Amherst series in Law and Jurisprudence, and has authored numerous journal articles. She was the founding director of the college's Center for Humanistic Inquiry. Provost Umphrey earned a B.A. in English, a Ph.D. in American culture, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan.

Please contact Anthony with inquiries about faculty personnel procedures, the Faculty Research Award Program (FRAP), the science center, compliance matters, the Moss Quantitative Center, sponsored research in the sciences, compliance committees (IACUC, IRB, IBC), equipping classrooms, faculty offices, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program, and with general questions.  He serves as the office’s liaison to the Departments of Information Technology, Facilities, the Faculty Computer Committee, and the Science Faculty Steering Committee.

Please contact Pawan with inquiries about Amherst's faculty development programs (orientation for new faculty, mentoring programs), the Schupf Fellows Program, sponsored research in the humanities and social sciences, the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, modest requests for funding for research and travel and for support for field trips, and the Gregory S. Call Undergraduate Research and Academic Internship Program. Pawan serves as the office’s liaison to the Writing Center, the Fellowships Office, the Office of Global Education, and the First-Year Seminar Committee. Pawan is leading implementation efforts surrounding the provost division's diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and the division's anti-racism action plan.

Please contact Janet with inquiries about the Faculty Executive Committee and the Tenure and Promotion Committee, academic policies, faculty hiring procedures (including advertising), faculty personnel procedures, provost office communications (including the provost's newsletter and website), faculty meetings, new faculty orientation, the  Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC), NECHE (reaccreditation), the STINT Program (visiting faculty from Sweden), and with general questions.  Janet serves as the office’s liaison to the Office of Communications and the trustee office.

Please contact Steven with questions about policies and procedures relating to the academic budget, including academic department budgets, and for help with financial reporting.

Please contact Nancy Ratner with questions about the Committee on Educational Policy (including proposals for new courses), the Gregory S. Call Student Research Program, the Schupf Fellows Program, the Post-Baccalaureate Fellowship, and faculty meeting minutes.

Please contact Pam with inquiries about faculty personnel policies, procedures, and records; the faculty handbook; and administration of the Faculty Executive Committee and the Tenure and Promotion Committee.

Alice supports the provost and dean of the faculty and serves as the office manager for the provost's office. She manages day-to-day office operations and is also responsible for managing administrative information processes relating to the faculty.  Please contact her with general questions, including those surrounding policies, procedures, and faculty leave eligibility, as well as events and programming organized by the provost's office. If Alice doesn't know the answer, she will forward your inquiry to a colleague in the provost's office who can help you.

Lauren Banfield works collaboratively with the assistant to the provost and dean of the faculty to support the administrative needs of the provost’s office. Lauren is responsible for administrative processes related to the Faculty Research Awards Program (FRAP), the Alpha Delta Phi Fund and the David P. Patchel Memorial Fund. She also coordinates special events organized by the provost’s office. Please contact Lauren with general inquiries related to the programs noted above and with questions about special events.

Please contact Polly to schedule an appointment with the provost and for general questions and inquiries. She is responsible for administrative processes related to the Gregory S. Call Academic Internship Program.

Triin provides support and guidance to academic department coordinators (ADC)s through the identification, creation, implementation, training, and assessment of ADC tasks and responsibilities. In addition, she supports all logistical aspects of the ADC hiring and placement process, including working with the chairs of academic departments and programs on the search process, onboarding, and training of their ADCs. Triin also identifies temporary support for department and program faculty during ADC leaves of absence.

Marie provides administrative coordination and support for departmental external reviews, orientation programs for new faculty, and other special projects within the provost's office.