Drexel University has named Volgenau School of Engineering alumnus and dean's advisory board member M. Brian Blake, PhD, as its next provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. Blake, who comes to Drexel from the University of Miami, where he is vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the Graduate School, will begin his new position on Aug. 1.
Drexel President John A. Fry said, "Dr. Blake brings an inspiring vision for an agile, experiential, global form of education, honed in a variety of leadership roles at three of the nation's best private research universities. He is also an outstanding researcher, teacher, and engineer."
Drexel will look to Blake to create a unified, interdisciplinary academic environment that encourages innovative teaching and research for the benefit of its students, community and society. The university has spent considerable time and energy aligning its resources to support academic priorities including student retention, faculty growth, global reach and eventually a state-of-the-art research infrastructure. Blake will provide the leadership that makes those goals into reality.
During his career, Blake has worked at the department, college, and provost level with responsibilities including research, instruction and faculty affairs.
Blake previously was associate dean for research and graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, overseeing programs in the College of Engineering that grew enrollment by more than 30 percent and doubled research awards and expenditures. Before that, he served as department chair and graduate studies director for computer science at Georgetown University.
He has held a tenured faculty appointment and directed an active research lab in computer science at each institution, with his work focused on adaptive workflow for web-based services and applications. Before beginning his academic career he was a software engineer and architect for Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and The MITRE Corporation. In addition to his bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech, he Blake holds a master's degree from Mercer University and his PhD from George Mason University. He serves on the Dean's Advisory Board for the Volgenau School.