Liz Silva

Liz Silva joined VPGE in 2022 as Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Education. In this role she collaborates extensively with partners across the campus in the support of and advocacy for graduate students. Within the VPGE she serves as the point person on graduate academic policies and works with her colleagues to develop and implement the strategic direction of the graduate professional development programs, marketing and communications, and the major fellowship programs.

Liz trained as a developmental biologist and geneticist in Canada, the UK, and the US. Prior to her position in VPGE she worked as an associate and senior editor with the Public Library of Science (PLOS) and as the founding director of the University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) Motivating INformed Decisions (MIND) program. Most recently she was Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in UCSF's Graduate Division, where she continued UCSF’s tradition of pushing boundaries in graduate education policy and programming, working with students, staff, and faculty to support graduate student success from recruitment through to post-graduation. In 2021, she also served as UCSF’s interim graduate dean.

Outside of her work at Stanford, Liz enjoys gardening, photography, rock climbing, and walking and running the hundreds of miles of trails of the Bay Area’s parks.