2025 Executive Sponsors

Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education

Ann Bisantz is the vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. Through oversight of academic policies, curriculum management, student success and retention, Bisantz's leadership enables all UB undergraduate students to achieve academic excellence. 

In this role, Bisantz stewards the strategic vision for the governance and management of UB's 21st-century general education program, the UB Curriculum, as well as the university's retention initiatives. Bisantz also provides visionary leadership support to the University Honors College, Cora P. Maloney Center, undergraduate research, and experiential learning, and student academic support initiatives such as the Center for Excellence in Writing, EAB Navigate platform, Tutoring and Academic Support Services and the Proud to be First initiative. Campus-wide undergraduate advising, student success coaching, and the Exploratory and Pre-Professional Advising Center also fall under Bisantz's purview, which ensures a coordinated approach to student achievement and engagement.

Dean since 2018, Bisantz has led initiatives to address learning gaps and improve pedagogy in key courses; collaborated on student success initiatives, including summer bridge courses and success coach models; overseen the full-scale implementation of the UB Curriculum; implemented efforts to streamline connecting first-year students to majors; and has led undergraduate education units in updating and transforming programming to meet the needs of today's students. Bisantz co-chaired the Curriculum and Pedagogy Committee for the President's Advisory Council on Race, co-chaired the Middles States Higher Education accreditation effort and was the 2022 chair of UB's SEFA Campaign for the Community. Bisantz is a SUNY Distinguished Professor and past chair of UB's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, where she led successful undergraduate accreditation efforts, developed new undergraduate and graduate programs, and expanded and diversified the ISE faculty.

Bisantz earned a PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master's and bachelor's degree from UB. Her research areas are cognitive engineering, human decision-making, human-computer interface design and complex work systems analysis. She received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Research and Creative Activity in 2015, the Paul M. Fitts Educator Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 2017 (where she was also named Fellow in 2013), the HFES WOMAN Mentor award in 2020, and has served on the executive boards of two professional societies. In 2024, she was appointed to the National Academie's Board on Human System Integration. Bisantz joined UB in 1997.

Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, University at Buffalo

Christopher Connor serves as the vice provost for enrollment management at the University at Buffalo. A proud UB graduate, he now champions the value of higher education for students across the U.S. and worldwide. With a proven track record of increasing enrollment and leveraging data-driven strategies, Connor oversees the offices of financial aid, undergraduate domestic and international admissions, graduate admissions operations, enrollment analytics, Arthur O. Eve Educational Opportunity Program, marketing and communications, and 1Capen/1Diefendorf. In collaboration with schools, colleges and university partners, he leads UB’s enrollment management strategy.

Previously, Connor served as the senior assistant dean for enrollment management in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), where he played a pivotal role in driving a 77% increase in enrollment, including a 74% rise in international student enrollment. Under his leadership, SEAS launched multiple interdisciplinary professional science master’s degrees aligned with market demand, surpassing 1,129 enrollments in just five years.

With over 25 years of experience in higher education, Connor has held leadership positions in undergraduate and graduate enrollment. He has worked closely with international and domestic students from institutional and academic unit perspectives. He also served as the campus functional lead for the UB 2020 Student Services Transformation enterprise implementation of the current HUB student system.

A recognized expert in enrollment management, Connor is an active contributor to professional higher education organizations. He serves on the IELTS Higher Education Advisory Council and the ETS Research Advisory Board and as a mentor and trainer with the European Association for International Education. Additionally, he was awarded the IELTS Best Practices Award in International Enrollment Management, recognizing his innovative and effective strategies in global student recruitment. In further recognition of his contributions to the field, Connor was recently named one of the Top 50 Professionals in International Education in North America by The PIE Leadership Digest, which highlights experienced leaders, rising stars, change agents, and policymakers shaping the future of international education.

Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence, University at Buffalo

Seval Yildirim has served as vice provost for Inclusive Excellence since November 2023, focusing on UB's efforts to create a culture of equity and inclusion university-wide to build campus diversity, enhance teaching and scholarship, increase cultural understanding, and foster a welcoming environment. As vice provost, Professor Yildirim plays a key role in partnering with UB's other senior leaders, unit diversity officers, and academic and academic support units across campus to further UB's goals around inclusive excellence.

Professor Yildirim has extensive administrative experience related to equity, diversity and inclusion, including in the areas of recruiting and retaining faculty and students from underrepresented groups, promoting inclusive pedagogy and classrooms, and building high school to university pipelines. Prior to UB, Professor Yildirim was vice president for diversity initiatives and chief diversity officer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) where she oversaw the Office of Diversity Initiatives, the Intersection: Academic Multicultural Resource Center, the First Gen Network and the Undocumented Student Program. Prior to UNLV, Professor Yildirim served as associate provost for faculty affairs and development and co-chief diversity officer at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB).

An expert in international human rights, Professor Yildirim's scholarship focuses on secularism, religion and state relations, and individual rights in liberal democracies. A professor of law at Whittier College prior to joining CSUSB, Professor Yildirim has also held visiting faculty positions at Harvard, UC Berkeley, Villanova University and New York University. In addition to her work in higher education, Professor Yildirim has served as pro bono counsel and legal consultant on individual rights cases across the United States.

Professor Yildirim holds a JD and LLM from New York University School of Law, an MA in international affairs from George Washington University and a BA in politics and women's studies from Randolph-Macon Woman's College.