Office of Dean and Director

Glenda Gillaspy: Dean and Director

Glenda Gillaspy became the 14th dean of UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in August 2022. Prior to that, Gillaspy was a professor of biochemistry at Virginia Tech where she served as department head since 2015. In that role she led novel curricular changes to promote student success and a sense of belonging, and implemented a mentoring program for new faculty that fostered their teaching and research success.

Gillaspy’s research focuses on signaling molecules that control phosphate-sensing in plants, with the goal of developing plants that can reclaim phosphate from the environment. She has been active in developing several outreach projects for high school students, and she has led a National Institute of Food and Agriculture funded Research Experiences and Extension summer research program for undergraduates, which is a collaboration between applied and basic scientists.

Gillaspy holds a B.S. in Biology from Auburn University, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University. She spent time at the University of California-Berkeley as a postdoctoral associate, and at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia in Portugal as a visiting researcher.

Executive Assistant