James Winebrake named Liberal Arts dean

‌

James Winebrake

James Winebrake, a noted transportation and energy policy scholar, has been named dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology. Winebrake will develop and implement the college’s strategic plan and lead RIT’s research and education initiatives in the humanities, social sciences, and performing/fine arts.

“James Winebrake is an accomplished scholar and teacher and has been an integral part of RIT’s research and educational mission for close to a decade,” notes Jeremy Haefner, RIT provost. “I am proud to name him as the new dean of liberal arts and look forward to working with him to promote the further development of the college and RIT as a whole.”

Winebrake was chosen following an open search that included input from faculty, staff, and students, which led to the selection of four finalists to be reviewed by the provost. Winebrake will begin his new duties Jan. 10.

“I am very honored to be selected for this post and will seek to work with the administration as well as the college’s faculty, staff, and students to advance education and scholarship in the arts, humanities, and social sciences while also promoting interdisciplinary initiatives across RIT’s nine colleges,” Winebrake says.

For the past eight years, Winebrake has served as chair of RIT’s Department of Science, Technology and Society/Public Policy, where he led efforts to develop and expand curricular offerings at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

He has earned international recognition for his research on issues related to the environmental impacts of goods movement, the effectiveness of transportation subsidies and public polices related to alternative energy development. He is a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on the Study of Potential Energy Savings and Greenhouse Gas Reductions from Transportation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Transportation Energy Futures Steering Committee.

Prior to joining RIT, Winebrake served as an associate professor of public policy at James Madison University. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Lafayette College, a master’s in technology and policy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in energy management and policy from the University of Pennsylvania.