Graduate School Leadership
Ayanna K. Thomas
Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Professor of Psychology
Ayanna K. Thomas became the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in February 2025. Since 2021 she has also served as the Dean of Research for the School of Arts and Sciences. Dean Thomas joined Tufts Department of Psychology in 2007 as an Assistant Professor, where she established the meta-Cognition and Applied Memory Lab. She was promoted to the role of Associate Professor in 2013 and Professor in 2019. She has served as Director of Graduate Studies for her department, helping to maintain the strong reputation of its graduate program.
In her role as Professor of Psychology, Dean Thomas investigates the subjective experience that accompanies memories. Her research encompasses metacognition, memory distortion, eyewitness memory, and applying cognition to education. Her more recent work has demonstrated that memory errors can be exacerbated when people are not able to exercise metacognitive control at retrieval. She is also leading an effort to advance innovation across disciplines as a co-primary investigator for a National Science Foundation Growing Convergence Research award-supported project where an interdisciplinary team across Tufts aims to help STEM students to reframe and engage with ambiguity, uncertainty, and confusion.
Dean Thomas received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Washington, and then spent three years as an NIA postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She also holds a BA in Psychology and African American Studies from Wesleyan University.
Karen Panetta
Dean of Graduate Education for the School of Engineering
Distinguished Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Karen Panetta received a BS in Computer Engineering from Boston University, and a MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University. She was named a distinguished professor at Tufts University in 2024, an honor reserved for faculty with exceptional contributions to their disciplines, students, Tufts University, and society. As the first female electrical engineer to be given tenure in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, Panetta continues to promote the interests of women in her field. From 2007 to 2009, she was the worldwide director for IEEE Women in Engineering, the largest international professional organization dedicated to promoting women engineers and scientists, and she served as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Women in Engineering magazine.
She is the faculty adviser to the Tufts student chapters of both the Society of Women Engineers and the IEEE, and is founder of the nationally acclaimed Nerd Girls program, which promotes engineering disciplines to young students. She is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and was awarded the 2013 IEEE Award for Distinguished Ethical Practices for exemplary contributions and leadership in developing ethics and social responsibility in students. She has received several NASA and National Science Foundation research grants, including the NSF CAREER Award. In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Panetta the Presidential Award for Science and Engineering Education and Mentoring. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2023 for her trailblazing efforts in supporting women in STEM and her outstanding research contributions in the field of electrical and computer engineering.
Dean Panetta's research focuses on developing efficient algorithms for simulation, modeling, and signal and image processing for security and biomedical applications.