About the Leadership Team
Liliana Gehring
Chief Strategy and Engagement Officer
Assistant Vice President Precision Medicine
Email: lgehrin@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-9707
Org Chart (PDF)
As chief of strategy and engagement for the College of Science, and assistant vice president of precision medicine, Gehring is responsible for leading college-wide strategy, alumni relations, industry partnerships, entrepreneurship and community outreach. Gehring also acts as project lead for a pilot project for the university on precision medicine with Trudy Mackay, Ph.D., director, Clemson University Center for Human Genetics.
Gehring joined Clemson in 2018 and immediately focused her attention on leading the finalization of a strategic plan. Since then, she has led transformational change focused on the three university pillars of efficiency, quality and relevance. She has been instrumental in building a culture of teamwork, operational excellence and continuous improvement.
Gehring’s multifaceted background as an executive leader was honed at Eli Lilly and Co., based in Indiana. Gehring has a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s in business administration from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and a doctorate in public health from Indiana University’s Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health. In addition, she has certifications as a Six Sigma Black Belt, as a project management professional, and in health economics and outcomes research. Gehring started her career at Ford Motor Co. She retired in December 2017 from Lilly, where she held leadership roles over 27 years across engineering, manufacturing, human resources, product research and development, project management, customer engagement, and health outcomes. She is passionate about education and public health. Her transition to Clemson has allowed her to apply her leadership skills and talents to higher ed, helping to build the newly formed College of Science.
Mikah Jones
Chief Business and Operations Officer
Email: mikahj@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-8962
Org Chart (PDF)
As chief business and operations officer, Jones is responsible for overseeing and leading the human resources, finance and business operations for the College. Jones joined Clemson in fall 2006. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business management from Anderson University (2006) and her MBA from Clemson University (2019).
Associate Deans
Stephen Creager
Discovery, Graduate Education, Space Optimization and Faculty Affairs
Email: screage@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-4995
Org Chart (PDF)
As associate dean leading discovery, graduate education, space optimization and faculty affairs, Creager is dedicated to supporting graduate students, and optimizes laboratory, office, teaching and learning space for faculty, staff and students. He also will direct the College’s faculty mentoring program. Creager joined Clemson University in 1995 as an assistant professor in the department of chemistry. Formerly, he has held positions of provost fellow, chair of the department of chemistry and interim associate dean of The Graduate School. He is the author or co-author on over 110 peer-reviewed journal articles and several book chapters and patents, and he has served as major advisor for 17 Ph.D. and eight M.S. graduates. Creager’s research is in the general area of electrochemical energy conversion and storage, and includes work on lithium batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, water electrolysis cells and related devices. Creager has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry from the University of North Carolina. Prior to accepting his first academic appointment, he worked as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral scientist at the University of Texas in Austin.
Calvin Williams
Undergraduate Excellence, Global Engagement and Inclusive Excellence
Email: calvinw@exchange.clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-5241
Org Chart (PDF)
As associate dean for undergraduate excellence, community engagement and inclusive excellence, Williams is responsible for student recruitment and success, helping to increase freshmen retention and six-year graduation rates for undergraduate students. He is the lead for all student affairs initiatives, including everything from promoting science outreach, to handling curriculum advising and strengthening teaching and learning methods. He is also dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented faculty, staff and students in the College. As a professor of mathematical sciences and the director of Clemson’s Center of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education, Williams heads the development of programs for Pre-K–16 teachers and Pre-K–12 students to study policy issues affecting pre-collegiate education. In 1987, he earned his Ph.D. in biometry from the Medical University of South Carolina, and he was a visiting research scholar in Stanford’s department of statistics before beginning postdoctoral research in the psychiatric statistics training program at Carnegie Mellon University. Williams has served on a number of committees and panels for the National Science Foundation, and was a program director for the agency’s division of undergraduate education for two years.
Director
Robert Anholt
Faculty Excellence
Center for Human Genetics
Email: ranholt@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-889-0521
As director of faculty excellence, Anholt isresponsible for nominating outstanding faculty for national awards, mentoring junior faculty and planning a science distinguished speaker series. Anholt is also a provost’s distinguished professor in the department of genetics and biochemistry. He is based at the Greenwood Genetic Center, and splits his time between Greenwood and Clemson. He brings years of experience to the College of Science, having been an assistant professor at Duke University Medical School and a postdoctoral fellow for The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in San Diego, as well as the department of neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Most recently, he was a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor at N.C. State. Anholt has a bachelor’s degree in biology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a master’s degree in biochemistry from University College-London and a Ph.D. in biology from University of California, San Diego. In research, Anholt uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism for human disorders, phenotypic plasticity and genome-by-environment interactions, among other studies. He is the author of “Dazzle ’Em with Style: The Art of Oral Scientific Presentation.”
Chairs and Directors
Karolina Mukhtar
Biological Sciences
Email: kmukhta@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-3057
Mukhtar joins Clemson from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is a broadly trained molecular plant biologist with over 20 years of experience studying various aspects of plant genetics and stress biology using genetic and biochemical approaches. Mukhtar was awarded the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for her study to uncover how plants recognize an important signature of infection — toxic unfolded proteins — and mount appropriate responses with potential in crop improvement. The award also recognized her deep involvement in outreach, notably a citizen-science based community garden. She has received federal funding from the National Science Foundation, as well as an NSF CAREER award. Prior to her tenure at UAB, Mukhtar served as a postdoctoral fellow in Duke University’s Department of Biology and at the Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics in Cologne, Germany. Mukhtar earned her Ph.D. in plant genetics from the Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research at the University of Cologne Institute for Genetics. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology and environmental science from the University of Stettin in Poland.
William Pennington
Chemistry
Email: billp@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-2319
As an alumni distinguished professor of chemistry and chair of the department of chemistry, Pennington leads the department in faculty and academic initiatives. He also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in inorganic chemistry. Pennington’s research focuses on the use of halogen bonding for crystal design and on the use of polydiacetylenes as chemical biosensors for food safety. He obtained a B.A. in chemistry from Hendrix College, his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Arkansas, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois. Pennington serves as editor in chief of the Journal of Chemical Crystallography, and was Director of the EUREKA! program from its inception in 2006 until the summer of 2017. Pennington has received the Award of Excellence for Teaching in the Sciences, the South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Science Awareness, Class of 1940 Douglas W. Bradbury Award, the Class of 1939 Award for Faculty Excellence, the Philip H. Prince Award for Innovative Teaching and the Charles H. Stone Award from the Carolina-Piedmont section of the ACS.
David Clayton
Genetics and Biochemistry
Email: dfclayt@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-3586
As a professor and chair of the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clayton guides the department’s strategic priorities and leads faculty and academic initiatives. After obtaining a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Georgia (1980), Clayton spent 10 years at Rockefeller University as both student and faculty (Ph.D. in 1985), 20 years on the faculty at the University of Illinois, then eight years as department head and graduate director at Queen Mary University of London before joining Clemson in 2020. Clayton is noted for his research on brain gene expression in songbirds — model organisms for speech learning, brain circuit development and social communication. With more than 14,000 citations, Clayton’s work continues to have influence over a wide range of fields. He has mentored more than 20 successful Ph.D.s, and been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Royal Society of Biology.
Colin Gallagher
Emily Peek Wallace ’72 Director
School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Email: smssdirector@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-1517
Gallagher is the Emily Peek Wallace ’72 Director of the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences. He leads the unit’s strategic initiatives to amplify student success, increase research productivity and transform lives in South Carolina. Formerly, he served as the founding division lead for the Division of Statistics and Operations Research within the school and has served in various officer positions in the South Carolina chapter of the American Statistical Association, as a representative on the Southern Regional Council on Statistics, as a member of International Surface Temperature Initiative and on the Environmetrics editorial board. He has been an advisor for 12 Ph.D. students, more than 20 M.S. students and several undergraduate research projects.
Chad Sosolik
Physics and Astronomy
Email: sosolik@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-0310
As professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sosolik leads the department's strategic initiatives and directs faculty and academic priorities. Prior to this position, he served as the undergraduate program coordinator and as president of the South Atlantic Coast section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. He received a B.S. in physics from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University and was an NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Electron Physics Group at NIST-Gaithersburg. Sosolik’s primary research focus is on fundamental aspects of ion-solid interactions, combining experimental and theoretical methods to probe the mechanisms of energy and charge exchange for singly to highly charged ions. He received an NSF CAREER award, an NSF MRI grant which established the CUEBIT multicharged ion research facility and has served as principal investigator on multiple awards from NSF, NASA and DARPA. He is actively engaged with the South Carolina teaching community and was part of a multi-year effort to bring math and physics education to K-12 teachers in local school districts. He was awarded the George B. Pegram Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Physics in the Southeast by the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society in 2020.
Trudy Mackay
Center for Human Genetics
Email: tmackay@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-889-0522
As director of the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, Mackay is building a team of researchers who will work toward significant advancements in our understanding of genetic disorders. She is also the Self Family Endowed Chair in Human Genetics in the department of biochemistry. Mackay received her B.S. and M.S. in biology from Dalhousie University and her Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Edinburgh. She was a lecturer in the department of genetics at the University of Edinburgh from 1980–1987 before joining the faculty of North Carolina State University in 1987 as a Distinguished University Professor and Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Chair of Biological Sciences. Mackay’s research focuses on understanding the molecular, genetic and environmental basis of variation in quantitative traits. Her findings have identified many novel genes affecting quantitative traits relevant to human biology, including lifespan, aggression, stress resistance, and alcohol and drug sensitivity. Mackay’s research has been funded continuously by the NIH since 1990, with research awards totaling more than $54 million. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Science, the Royal Society of London and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. She has been awarded the Genetics Society of America Medal, the O. Max Gardner Award from the University of North Carolina Board of Regents, the North Carolina Award for Science, and is the 2016 Wolf Prize Laureate in Agriculture.
Administration
Yovie Heyburn
Special Administrator for the Dean
Email: yheybur@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-656-3642
As special administrator for the dean, Heyburn provides support in planning, organizing and administering functions for the dean’s office. Heyburn previously worked in higher education as part of the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing and supporting senior-level executives at Northeast Georgia Health System.
Kevin James
In loving memory of Kevin James, founding director, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences.
