Beth Winkelstein has been named vice provost for education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a professor of bioengineering and the associate dean for undergraduate education in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Her appointment, effective July 1, was announced today by Provost Vincent Price.

“Beth Winkelstein is a world-renowned researcher, an educational innovator, a widely admired administrator –- and a Penn graduate,” Price said. “I cannot imagine a more dynamic and experienced leader to advance the exemplary legacy of Andy Binns as vice provost for education. I am most grateful to the consultative committee, led by Dwight Jaggard, whose insights, dedication and conversations with faculty across the University helped us arrive at this outstanding result.”

Winkelstein’s research focuses on the mechanisms of bodily injury, especially injuries from sports, automobile accidents or degenerative diseases that produce persistent pain in the neck and spine and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, among many others, including a Presidential Early Career Award from the NSF. 

The author of Orthopaedic Biomechanics (2012) and more than a hundred papers and book chapters, she serves as editor of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering and is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which awarded her its Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award in 2006. 

At Penn, she has served as associate dean for undergraduate education in SEAS since 2012 and before that as chair of the Graduate Group in Bioengineering and as a Penn Fellow, the cross-University program for select faculty members to develop leadership skills, build alliances across disciplines and gain deeper knowledge of University governance. In partnership with Dean Dennis DeTurck of the College of Arts and Sciences, she leads Penn’s multi-year grant from the American Association of Universities to improve the quality of teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, especially through new techniques of active in-class learning. 

SEAS students have twice awarded her the Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising, and in 2012-13 she led the cross-campus working group that studied best practices in undergraduate research as part of the University’s reaccreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. 

Winkelstein has taught at Penn since 2002, following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Duke University. She received a B.S.E. cum laude in bioengineering from Penn in 1993, as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. 

The vice provost for education has primary responsibility for undergraduate and graduate education at Penn, developing and implementing policies that promote academic excellence, innovative teaching and learning and interdisciplinary knowledge across the University. The vice provost chairs the Council of Undergraduate Deans, Council of Graduate Deans, Council of Professional Master’s Degree Deans, Graduate Council of the Faculties and Faculty Advisory Council for Access and Academic Support Initiatives and works closely with the wide range of student services and resources overseen by the vice provost for university life. College Houses and Academic Services, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Graduate Student Center and the Office of Student Conduct all report to the vice provost for education.