LMU's Seaver College of Science and Engineering Names First Woman Dean

LOS ANGELES, March 6, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- S. W. Tina Choe, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been named dean of the Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering. She is the 11^th dean of the college and the first woman to hold that post. 

Choe has served as the college's interim dean since July 2014.

Choe joined LMU in 1995 and has earned numerous awards for teaching excellence including the Outstanding Professor Award from Order of Omega, the Teacher Eddy Award, and LMU's highest teaching award, the Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008.

She is known for her strong commitment to academic excellence at all levels and for embracing the value of student engagement. She has consistently involved undergraduate students as co-investigators and co-authors in her own scholarly work. Choe is also a strong proponent of the educational principles that flow from LMU's Catholic, Jesuit and Marymount traditions.

"We are extremely fortunate to have someone of Tina Choe's skill and dedication as our new dean of the Seaver College of Science and Engineering," said David W. Burcham, president of LMU.  "She understands our university and is committed to serving students and faculty while furthering our Jesuit and Marymount traditions and our standards of academic excellence."  

Prior to her appointment as interim dean, Choe was associate dean for Undergraduate Studies from 2012-14 and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2008-12. 

For the past seven years, Choe also served as chair of the Life Sciences building project. The state-of-art facility is scheduled to open this summer. 

"Dr. Choe brings both vision and a clear sense of how to move vision to reality," said Joseph Hellige, executive vice president and provost of LMU. "As interim dean during the last eight months, she has already worked with her colleagues to create and support the kind of innovative opportunities for student-faculty research that will place the college at the forefront of STEM education."

Choe earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry and a doctorate in organic chemistry from UCLA. She was the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Post-Doctoral Fellow at Occidental College from 1994-95. 

Choe succeeds Richard Plumb, who became executive vice president and provost of St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minn.

About Loyola Marymount University
Located between the Pacific Ocean and downtown Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive university offering 60 major programs, 36 master's degrees and a doctoral degree in education from four colleges, two schools and Loyola Law School. Founded in 1911, LMU is ranked third in "Best Regional Universities/West" by U.S. News & World Report. LMU is the largest Jesuit Catholic university for undergraduates on the West Coast with more than 6,000 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate and law students. For more LMU news and events, please visit www.lmu.edu/news.

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SOURCE Loyola Marymount University