Melina Hale

Dean of the College, William Rainey Harper Professor in Organismal Biology and Anatomy

1116 E. 59th Street, HM241
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: 773.702.8576
Fax: 773.702.5846
mhale@uchicago.edu

Executive Assistant:
Cynthia Keel 
773.702.8576
cynthia1@uchicago.edu

Melina Hale became Dean of the College in 2023. Dean Hale guides the strategic vision for the College and plays a crucial role in advancing the University’s and the College’s fundamental values, while helping provide undergraduate students with a transformative educational experience.

The William Rainey Harper Professor in Organismal Biology and Anatomy and the College, Dean Hale received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1998 and joined the faculty in 2002. Her service has included terms on the Council of the Senate, including as spokesperson for the Committee of the Council, Council of the College, Committee of the Council of the College, and on the Board of the Laboratory Schools. She was also a dean for faculty affairs in the Biological Sciences Division and served as co-interim director of the Marine Biological Laboratory.

Hale most recently served in the Office of the Provost for seven years, working on a range of administrative initiatives including as liaison to administrative offices on University systems and human resources. There she led administrative systems improvements projects, working with faculty members and various offices of the University to modernize administrative systems and improve policies and processes. She provided administrative leadership to a number of centrally-reporting centers and institutes. Additionally, she oversaw emeriti initiatives and is the Office of the Provost point person on environmental research and sustainability.

Hale is a member of the Committee of Neurobiology and the Committee on Computational Neuroscience.

Hale’s research integrates neuroscience and biomechanics to study neural control of movement. She collaborates with engineers to explore biological models that inform the design of engineered underwater propulsion systems. Hale was a National Academies/Howard Hughes Medical Institute Education Fellow and a Fellow of the Institute for Defense Analysis and received a National Science Foundation CAREER award. She was President of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At the University of Chicago she has received a Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the University’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring.