UTRGV has appointed Ala Qubbaj, Alma D. Rodriguez and Vivian Incera as deans.
Qubbaj was appointed dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science on Jan. 1. He has been a professor since 1999, when he first began his career at legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American, and has been here ever since.
He said this job is personal to him due to his history and passion for the university and its students.
“This was my first job, basically, so I think UTRGV has prepared me for this role, because I’ve been here for 20 years as a faculty member and also an administrator here,” Qubbaj said.
Qubbaj has served in a variety of leadership roles throughout his career, including vice provost for Faculty Affairs & Diversity at UTRGV and at UTPA since 2009. He also served as the interim dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science for about a year.
He is working on several projects in order to better the college as its dean and to help students work on their leadership skills.
Qubbaj is proud of the students and staff in his college and considers working and seeing their progress as one of the most exciting things about his position.
“If you inspire others to learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a leader,”he said. “So, just being able to inspire others, the students and the faculty to do more, become more and dream more is an honor.”
Rodriguez has been appointed dean of the College of Education and P-16 Integration, starting today. Throughout her 14 years in higher education, she has gained experience through several roles she has held: from associate dean for Assessment and Accreditation to interim chair for Language, Literacy and Intercultural Studies. Her most recent role was interim dean for the College of Education and P-16.
Rodriguez said her previous experiences have given her proficiency and perspective on how she can better serve and support the faculty and students within her college. She is looking forward to making a positive impact on the lives of her students, as well as assisting the faculty as much as she can.
“I feel very honored,” Rodriguez said. “I have been entrusted with a responsibility of ensuring that we prepare effective educators for all of the children in our region and in the state, or wherever our graduates choose to go and practice their new profession as educators.”
Asked how she felt about her new position, she replied, “I feel very excited about the opportunities ahead, of continuing to move our work forward in achieving excellence in educative preparation.”
Bringing over 30 years of experience to UTRGV, Incera will be the first woman to be dean of the College of Sciences for UTRGV starting this fall. She has recently served as dean of Science and Technology at the City University of New York. Incera is on the board of directors for the American Physics Society. She is considered to be an adept theoretical physicist with numerous awards from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Energy Department.
Incera hopes to expand and develop several projects at UTRGV to help the faculty, staff and students grow and better themselves.
“What I would like to do is to develop things that would make UTRGV unique across Texas and beyond, so when people say, ‘Oh, you want to study this? Go to UTRGV, they are the best!’ That would be my dream,” Incera said.
Incera said that she was humbled by the fact that she was chosen for the position.
“I only hope that I will work very hard to make people happy that made this decision,” she said.
Patricia Alvarez McHatton, executive vice president for Academic Affairs, said she’s excited about the new deans.
“I’m very excited in having Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Qubbaj and Dr. Incera joining UTRGV in these new roles, and I know that they are going to work diligently to ensure student success and staff success and faculty success as we move into the next semester and the next academic year and so forth,” McHatton said.
