Dr. Tim Le Cras named associate dean for graduate education

“We are certain that Dr. Le Cras will more than fulfill our expectations in expanding our graduate programs, involve other UC colleges in transdisciplinary efforts and continue outreach for practical internships and other alternative career opportunities for students. Graduate education is an essential component of the research and education missions of the College of Medicine and the success of these programs is an integral factor in the university’s designation as a Research 1 institution,” says Melanie T. Cushion, PhD, senior associate dean for research at the college.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to help promote and serve the graduate education programs at UC College of Medicine,” Le Cras says. “Doctoral and master’s training is very close to my heart and I am very passionate about it. One of the reasons I came to Cincinnati 19 years ago was the commitment of the college to graduate education and having excellent PhD and master’s programs which were integrated into both the College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s. That commitment and the strength of graduate training really attracted me to come to Cincinnati.”

In leading the Office of Graduate Education, Le Cras will help support the approximately 700 graduate students and nearly 80 postdoctoral fellows at the College of Medicine. He will work with faculty and students to align curriculum, scholarship, grants and research; ensure research integrity training requirements for all graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; and oversee curricula review for the purposes of diversity and inclusion efforts. He also will be responsible for administrative leadership of all graduate programs, centralized recruitment of graduate students, lead diversity planning and underrepresented minority student outreach efforts, coordinate college-wide graduate program events, oversee the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program and manage internal and external reviews of our graduate programs.

Le Cras, a native of the English Channel island of Guernsey, has been a faculty member since coming to Cincinnati Children’s in 2001. He previously was an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he had been on faculty since 1996. He received his doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Cambridge in England and served as a postdoctoral fellow from 1993 until 1996 at the University of Virginia.

“We want to thank Dr. Cartwright for his six years of dedicated and inspired leadership of our graduate programs. He will be retiring Oct. 31 after serving on faculty since 1985, but he expects to continue some teaching activities,” Filak says. “Dr. Cartwright has had a profound impact on our master’s and doctoral programs, evidenced by the growth in many of the programs, the superb reviews they have received, the increased diversity of our graduate students and the growing number of prestigious awards and honors our graduate students have earned.”