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M. Brian Blake, PhDExecutive Vice President and ProvostProfessor of Computer ScienceConcurrent Professor of Electrical and Computer EngineeringGeorge Washington UniversityCAREER SUMMARYDr. Blake is Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at George WashingtonUniversity. As the highest-ranking academic officer, he oversees all academic programs across the 10schools and colleges, 3 campuses, and 28,000 students. Dr. Blake was hired to lead the University’s newenrollment strategy to rescale and reconfigure the entering class in context of the changing studentdemographics in the Northeast and Nation. Dr. Blake continues to successfully lead the academicenterprise of GW through the Nation’s COVID-19 pandemic and currently spearheading a university-wideplan to assess new innovations in pedagogy and teaching modalities in a post-COVID world.Prior to GWU, Dr. Blake served as Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Nina HendersonProvost at Drexel University overseeing their 14 schools and colleges and over 25,000 students. ProvostBlake led the implementation of a responsibility-centered management (RCM) budget model across all theschools and colleges and led, on behalf of the President, the implementation of the University’s StrategicPlan. As Provost, Dr. Blake led the development of an academically focused strategic vision entitled“Creating the 21st Century Academic Experience” and visioned a five-year academic investment planentitled “Drexel Academics 2025”. Under Blake’s academic oversight, Drexel maintained its Top 100ranking by having its largest, most academically gifted freshman class, the University’s highest retentionrate, the highest overall research activity in history leading to the University’s first-ever CarnegieClassification as a R1 Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity as well as a significant increase inthe enrollment of professional master students. During his first 4 years, he oversaw the hire of 11 Deansand over 100 faculty while significantly increasing the diversity of administrative offices. Blake’s leadershipof academic space planning resulted in new facilities for the College of Computing and Informatics, theSchool of Education, the College of Nursing and Health Professions, and a new College of Medicine BranchCampus (Reading, PA). Blake oversaw the creation of several contemporary centers, including the FabricDiscovery Center, the Weight, Eating, and Lifestyle Science (WELL) Center, and the University’s newTeaching and Learning Center. In 2017, Blake was named the Nina Henderson Provost which recognizedand enabled his central programs that enhance interdisciplinary initiatives across the institution. Heconceived innovative interdisciplinary programs such as Drexel Areas of Research Excellence (DARE) andMarket-Driven Academic Program Ventures (MPV) which enhanced research and graduate education,respectively. These programs facilitated over 65 interdisciplinary research teams and 25 newinterdisciplinary degree program proposals. He oversaw the creation of the Drexel Business SolutionsInstitute and the Experiential Edge program which extended Drexel’s mission for experiential learning. Tointentionally involve students and faculty within the strategic academic planning, Dr. Blake conceived andled the creation of a new student advisory group (Dragon’24) to enhance the climate for all students oncampus. Blake also initiated a Provost’s Fellows program that created 18 positions in the Office of theProvost to work on strategic areas to enhance the academic mission. InsPIR (Innovations in Pedagogy:Implementation and Reflection) is another program that encourages grassroots planning activities todevelop next-generation pedagogical approaches. Provost Blake oversaw the establishment of a newGraduate College and an initiative to increase and resituate the professional Master programs in theevolving Northeast market. Provost Blake led the academic strategy and vision that overlays DrexelUniversity’s urban renewal initiative and public-private partnerships to bring innovation to WestPhiladelphia, the ( 3.5 Billion, 14 acre) Schuylkill Yards. As a part of his efforts, he served on the ScienceCenter-Philadelphia Advisory Board, Academy of Natural Sciences Trustee Board, the IEEE ComputerSociety Board of Governors, Georgia Tech’s College of Computing Advisory Board, George Mason’sVolgeneau School of Engineering Advisory Board, and as a trustee of the Springside-Chestnut HillAcademy. He formerly served on the Advisory Boards of Graduate Records Exam (GRE) and theOpportunities Industrialization Center (OIC-Philadelphia).Prior to Drexel, Dr. Blake was Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School atthe University of Miami. As Dean of the Graduate School, he had oversight and advocacy of universityM. Brian Blake, PhD, Executive Vice President and Provost1

wide graduate programs (including the Medical campus) consisting of over 155 programs housed in 12schools and colleges comprised of more than 5700 students. As Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Dr.Blake had special responsibilities for the advocacy, enhancement, and policy matters regarding researchprograms for disciplines on the Coral Gables campus including Architecture, Arts and Science, Business,Communication, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Law, Music, and Nursing. Also as ViceProvost, he oversaw university-wide faculty enhancement and diversity efforts with respect to initiatives forfaculty recruitment, hiring, retention & promotion, and equity.During his term at the University of Miami, Dr. Blake was cited by a “Resolution of Tribute” issued by theBoard of Trustees to have universally elevated the visibility of graduate education and significantlyenhanced the environment for faculty success at the University of Miami. In three years, the GraduateSchool reinvented its research-oriented and professional development programs. The creation of theDean’s Prestigious Fellowship Program, First-Year Research Guide, Fellowship Writing and ReviewInitiative (FWRI), and Distinguished Scholar/Mentor Lecture Series all helped to jumpstart the students’research careers and greatly increased applications to and awards of external fellowships and recognitions.A strategic initiative, Research Intersections, was created to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary researchcombining STEM fields and the humanities and arts. UGrow, a partnership between the College of Arts andSciences and the Graduate School, was created to help develop PhD students in the humanities to beprepared for alternative careers beyond academia. During his term in his capacity of Vice Provost, theOffice of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (OVPAA) institutionalized a new office, SEEDS, that focuseson climate and faculty retention. In a three-year period, OVPAA oversaw the hire of 7 tenured/tenure trackBlack faculty which, at the time, was over 20% of the original population of Black faculty. Blake oversawthe creation of the LeadershipU Academy, a year-long enrichment program to foster new academic leaderswithin the faculty body. Finally, Blake led the Presidential Task Force and university response for the climatechallenges associated with the national issues generally associated with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.At the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Blake was the Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studiesand Professor of Computer Science and Engineering from 2009-2012. He provided oversight for researchprograms and graduate studies in the College of Engineering. During his term, the College of Engineeringhad record increases ( 100%) in research awards and expenditures and the graduate program grew byover 30%. During his term, he led the creation of new recruitment programs, NDSynergy, NDConnect andNDConnection, that engaged potential PhD applicants at a targeted group of peer and aspirationalinstitutions. Prior to Notre Dame, he was on the faculty of Georgetown University where he served as Chairof the Department of Computer Science. He was chair and director of graduate studies during the inauguralyears of university’s first graduate program in computer science. He also orchestrated several STEMinitiatives including a new professional Master program in Technology Management and collaborativeefforts with the Departments of Biostatistics and Radiology, both in the Medical School.As a Professor, Dr. Blake has appointments in the Department of Computer Science and Department ofElectrical and Computer Engineering. He has served as advisor or co-advisor to 15 postdoctoral fellowsand graduate students and more than 30 undergraduate researchers. He has authored or co-authored over200 journal articles, books/book chapters, and refereed conference/workshop papers. He is most knownfor his contributions to the areas of adaptive, inter-organizational workflow for web-based services andsystems. Dr. Blake has served on 5 National Academies’ studies or committees and on the NationalScience Foundation’s Advisory Committee for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering(CISE) Directorate. He is Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Internet Computing, former Associate Editor of IEEETransactions on Service Computing, and Editor-in-Chief of a Springer book series entitled Web-ScaleWorkflow and Analytics. He has served as general/program chair/co-chair for over 10 research conferencesin his specialty. He was the creator and founder of the Web Services Challenge (WS-Challenge) an initiative(and specialized infrastructure) that evaluates software engineering techniques in the area of web servicecomposition. The WS-Challenge was the first of 4 other service composition challenges. In 2012, he coauthored the book entitled Semantic Web Services: Advancement through Evaluation that detailsexperiences from all the service composition evaluation initiatives. Dr. Blake’s scholarly activities havebeen funded by more than 10 million in sponsored research awards from various government andcommercial organizations (e.g. AFRL, AFOSR, DARPA, Department of Education, FAA, NIH, NSF, IBM,MITRE, and SAIC). In industry, Dr. Blake spent 6 years prior to joining academia working as a softwarearchitect, technical lead, and expert developer with General Electric, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics,and The MITRE Corporation. Concurrent with his faculty appointment, he has continued as an expert-levelsystems consultant in the intersection of information technology and software engineering supporting the2M. Brian Blake, PhD, Executive Vice President and Provost