Mailick to join Graduate School

Marsha Mailick, a longtime University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty member and veteran of research leadership roles at the university, has been selected by Chancellor Rebecca Blank as interim successor to Martin Cadwallader, who is returning to the faculty.

Mailick, who currently serves as director of the Waisman Center, will formally assume a new role on Sept. 1, 2014. She will begin working full-time in the Graduate School on August 4, 2014, allowing a transition period between her and Cadwallader, outgoing vice chancellor for research and dean of the Graduate School.

The exact nature of Mailick’s interim appointment will depend upon the finalization of a campus discussion on the appropriate structure for the university’s research enterprise. The University Committee is expected to bring recommendations about the reorganization to the Faculty Senate on May 5.

Mailick joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1988. She currently directs the Waisman Center, a large multidisciplinary center with a focus on developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases. She previously served as interim director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and chaired the search for a new chancellor in 2008.

Mailick will be the university’s interim research officer, overseeing a robust graduate education and research portfolio.

“I’m appreciative of the confidence inherent in the appointment,” says Mailick, a professor of social work and expert on autism, who has led the Waisman Center since 2001. “Leadership transitions are never easy, but I think I can help in this process.”

Cadwallader, a professor of geography, has served as Graduate School dean and vice chancellor for research since 2002.

“We are very appreciative of the service rendered by Vice Chancellor Martin Cadwallader,” notes Blank. “That is a big job and he has managed it with distinction.”

With more than $1 billion in annual research expenditures, the job of vice chancellor for research is one of the most complex in Wisconsin higher education.

The Graduate School has an annual budget of $160 million and includes administration of 17 cross-campus research and service centers as well as responsibility for 9,400 graduate students in 150 master’s and 120 doctoral fields.