Barbara Knuth, vice provost and dean of Cornell's Graduate School, has been elected to a two-year term on the board of directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), an organization of more than 500 institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada. Her term will begin Jan. 1, 2012. Collectively, CGS institutions award more than 95 percent of all U.S. doctorates each year and more than 78 percent of all U.S. master's degrees.

Knuth is the first faculty member from Cornell elected to the post in 30 years. (Alison Casarett, former dean of the Graduate School, served 1982-1984.) She serves on the Ocean Studies Board of the U.S. National Academies, is past president of the American Fisheries Society and has served on numerous scientific panels and advisory boards.

Since becoming vice provost and dean in 2010, Knuth has provided leadership for graduate education across the university. She steered Cornell's 2011 acceptance to the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning Network, an elite national organization that aims to produce better university teachers in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. Under her leadership the Graduate School is enhancing its professional development program for students to foster transferable skills relevant to academic and nonacademic career paths. The Graduate School is also increasing its focus on inclusion through strategic support of graduate fields' efforts in recruitment, retention and academic success for a diverse graduate and professional student population. The Graduate School enrolls more than 5,000 master's and doctoral students and offers programs in nearly 100 fields of study.

"Your selection is a reflection of the confidence that the membership has in your leadership abilities," wrote CGS board chair Jeffery Gibeling, dean of graduate studies at the University of California-Davis, in his notification email to Knuth.

The mission of the CGS, which acts as the national voice for the graduate dean community, is to advance graduate education to ensure the vitality of intellectual discovery and to promote an environment that cultivates rigorous scholarship.

Knuth joined Cornell's Department of Natural Resources in 1986 and served as department chair 2002-07. She was senior associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 2007-10. She has held a variety of leadership and service positions at Cornell, including serving as speaker of the University Faculty Senate 2005-07.

Knuth holds a Ph.D. in fisheries and wildlife sciences from Virginia Tech (1986), which recognized her with the Outstanding Alumni Leadership Award in 2007, and an M.S. (1982), B.Phil. (1980) and B.A. (1980) from Miami University.