Hazel Sive will become the new Dean of the College of Science, according to an email from Provost James C. Bean  to Northeastern faculty Wednesday. Her appointment will become effective Jun. 1, 2020.

Sive served as chair of the biology department undergraduate program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, from 2003 to 2006. She also served as the first Associate Dean of Science at MIT between the years of 2006 and 2013. 

As associate dean, “she led the School of Science in education strategy, successfully promoted diversity in graduate student and faculty hiring, and devised programs for postdoctoral and junior faculty training,” Bean wrote in the email. 

She is currently a professor of biology at MIT. Sive also founded the MIT-Africa Initiative in 2014, which aims to expand MIT’s connections with Africa and aid in African countries’ economic plans. She is a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and also serves as an associate member of the Broad Institute. 

Sive’s current research focuses on mental health disorders and brain development. 

In 2011, Sive also “initiated the Report on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT,” Bean wrote. 

Sive will replace Interim Dean Michael Pollastri, who took over from Chancellor Ken Henderson in February. Sive’s appointment comes a few weeks after the Women’s Power Gap Initiative and the Eos Foundation reported that Northeastern lacks in female leadership.