Professor Tracy Johnson announced as incoming dean of life sciences division

UCLA named professor Tracy Johnson as the new dean of the division of life sciences Tuesday.

Johnson, a professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at UCLA who has been a member of the faculty since 2013, will assume the position starting Sept. 1.

Johnson will be replacing Victoria Sork, the current dean of life sciences, who announced she was stepping down as dean in June 2020 in a statement released in June 2019. 

Johnson currently serves as chair and director of UCLA’s biomedical research minor, and was previously on the biological sciences faculty at UC San Diego, where she received the UCSD Chancellor’s Associates Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. 

Johnson was also on the faculty advisory committees for the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women and was on the Moreno Report Implementation Committee.

“These extraordinary times provide an opportunity for UCLA Life Sciences to exercise leadership in new and previously unimaginable ways,” Johnson said in a statement. “I am honored to be a steward of these incredible opportunities to build on a foundation of excellence as we move forward into an exciting future.”