Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Dr. Roberta Berry, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (AVPUE), is a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. She was also jointly appointed as Professor of Science and Technology Law, Policy and Ethics at Georgia State University College of Law (active, 2013·2017). Dr. Berry earned her Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame, where she held a University Presidential Fellowship, and her J.D. at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, where she was elected to membership in the Order of the Coif.
As AVPUE, she serves as a deputy to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and works closely with him on a range of undergraduate curricular initiatives, including general education and its assessment, undergraduate academic policies, and University System of Georgia (USG) initiatives. She also contributes leadership for the responsibilities of the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) for assessment, data and analytics, and accreditation. Dr. Berry oversees an Undergraduate Curriculum leadership team in OUE that supports Georgia Tech's development and implementation of USG's Core IMPACTS general education "refresh," the Georgia Legislative Requirements (GLRs), and Georgia Tech's next Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). She also oversees leadership of the Georgia Tech Honors Program.
Dr. Berry joined OUE in 2014 as Director of the Honors Program and was promoted to Executive Director in 2021. She became part-time AVPUE in 2022, and she was appointed full-time AVPUE in 2023, relinquishing her duties as Executive Director of the Honors Program at that time. As Director of the Honors Program, she led its comprehensive transformation to a fully integrated Living Learning Community (LLC) with an expanded student enrollment and Honors Program class menu. Her other leadership efforts since joining OUE have included serving as co-Pl with former Vice Provost Colin Potts for a research project funded by a 2018 GT FIRE Education Innovation Award, playing a lead role in preparing OUE's five-year self-study in 2018, and chairing the OUE 2020 Committee to align OUE's working methods and priorities with the Institute's Strategic Plan.
Dr. Berry's research focuses on bioethics, health law and policy, and the legal, ethical, and policy implications of bioscience and biotechnology research and innovation. Her publications include two books, The Ethics of Genetic Engineering and A Health Law Reader: An Interdisciplinary Approach, and numerous articles and book chapters, including the award-winning, co-authored article 'The Absent Professor: Why We Don't Teach Research Ethics and What to Do about It” (Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership) and "The Human Genome Project and the End of Insurance” (reprinted in National Insurance Law Review, A Compilation of Significant Articles on Insurance).
Dr. Berry was principal investigator for a National Science Foundation grant focusing on ethically contentious issues in bioscience and biotechnology and was a co-PI for a National Institutes of Health grant focusing on research ethics in clinical and translational science.
She is a member of the editorial board of HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum and has served on National Science Foundation Advisory Panels and Site Visit Teams. She has also served as an external reviewer for Cambridge University Press, Aspen Publishers (legal), the National Science Foundation, the Welcome Trust (U.K.), and several journals.
Her recognitions include Class of 1940 W. Howard Ector Outstanding Teacher Award (Georgia Tech 2005), Ivan Allen Jr. Faculty Legacy Award (Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts 2004), and Outstanding Faculty Member (Student Government Association 2001).