Leadership
My administrative work is grounded in a simple conviction: strong leadership and strong research are not competing priorities — they reinforce each other. Over the past decade at GSU I have built programs and structures that expand research capacity, attract talent, and create opportunities for students and junior faculty.
My approach rests on three principles: truth leads to trust — faculty cannot buy into decisions they do not understand; clarity of destination matters more than pace — a shared vision separates strategic leaders from reactive managers; and complementary teams outperform homogeneous ones — the best hiring decisions fill your blind spots rather than clone your strengths. Underlying all three is sustained presence: real institutional change requires staying long enough to live with the consequences of your own decisions.
I also hold a clear-eyed view of how universities survive — on three legs: donations, externally funded research, and student enrollment. Leaders who avoid this conversation risk misaligning everything else. In my own work I have contributed deliberately to two of the three: $18M+ in external research funding and a graduate concentration with consistent enrollment growth — while remaining mindful of the third.
Academic Leadership
Data Mining Lab (DMLab) — Founder and Director of the DMLab at Georgia State University, an interdisciplinary research group spanning Computer Science, Physics, Astronomy, and Applied Mathematics & Statistics. The lab has grown into one of the most productive AI and data science research clusters in the GSU, with sustained federal funding from NASA, NSF, and active collaborations with national laboratories and international research partners.
BDML Program & Graduate Program Development — Founder and Director of the Big Data & Machine Learning Concentration within the university-wide M.S. in Data Science and Analytics (MSA) program, established in 2019 through sustained negotiation across the Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics & Statistics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Ongoing responsibilities include strategic direction of the MSA program, curriculum design, admissions policy, internship management, and expansion of direct admit pathways from different undergraduate programs across GSU.
Dual Degree Programs — Chair of the Dual Degree BS/MS in Data Science Development Committee, leading the design and institutional approval of the 4+1 accelerated pathways connecting GSU’s BS-CS and BS-DS programs to the BDML concentration (BS-DS launching Fall 2026; BS-CS launching Spring 2027). These pathways reflect a deeper commitment to GSU’s undergraduate mission — rewarding the investment our own students make in their education here by giving them a seamless, accelerated route to an advanced degree without leaving the institution that prepared them.
PhD Program Director, Montana State University (2006–2013) — Served as Director of the PhD Program in the Department of Computer Science at Montana State University, overseeing doctoral admissions, curriculum, and student progress during a period of significant program growth — the foundation for my subsequent graduate program leadership at GSU.
USG Data Science Regents’ Advisory Committee — Nominated by GSU Provost to serve on the University System of Georgia’s Data Science Regents’ Advisory Committee (2020–present), contributing to system-level policy and strategic direction for data science education across all USG institutions. Previously served on the USG Data Science Working Group (2019–2020), both called by Assistant Vice Chancellor Barbara L. Brown.
GSU Academic Leadership Institute Fellows (ALIF) — Participant in GSU’s inaugural cohort-based ALIF program, preparing senior faculty for executive academic leadership through study of institutional strategy, shared governance, and research enterprise development.
SABID Workshop Series (2014–present) — Founded and have chaired the Solar & Stellar Astronomy Big Data (SABID) international workshop series, now in its 8th edition (2026), bridging the astronomy and computer science communities around data science and machine learning for heliophysics.
Academic Service — Service roles spanning department, college, and university-system levels, including the GSU University Senate, the CAS Promotion & Tenure Committee, faculty search committee leadership (including co-chairing the search for the current Department Chair of Computer Science), and additional service roles at the department, college and university levels.
Faculty Mentorship — Sustained investment in junior faculty through formal mentorship, collaborative grant development, and faculty search committee work. Includes colleagues now serving as tenure-track and research faculty at GSU across three departments.