Indiana University of Pennsylvania has selected the interim leadership for its new College of Health Sciences.
Hilliary Creely, dean of the IUP School of Graduate Studies and Research, has been named interim dean of the College of Health Sciences, and Lisa Newell, chair of the IUP Department of Psychology, has been named interim associate dean of the College of Health Sciences.
These appointments begin on July 1 and will continue through the 2025-2026 academic year.
Hilliary Creely
“Dr. Creely and Dr. Newell are strong, experienced, and respected leaders in the university community, known for their commitment to collaboration, who are focused on the success of our students and elevating IUP’s stature,” IUP President Michael Driscoll said.
“I am very pleased that they have agreed to serve in these key roles, and I am confident that they have the skills and abilities to develop new and unique opportunities for our students and faculty in the health sciences as part of IUP’s leadership team.”
The College of Health Sciences includes the departments of Allied and Public Health, Nursing, and Psychology and will have close ties to the proposed college of osteopathic medicine.
The new College of Health Sciences was developed following the year-long, university-wide Academic Review and Restructuring process; the new university academic structure goes into effect on July 1.
“While the Academic Review and Restructuring Process includes reconfiguration of some of the colleges and departments, the College of Health Sciences is a new innovation for IUP, designed to advantage our students with more cross-departmental opportunities and to address workforce needs in the health sciences,” IUP Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Luetkehans said. “This new college will continue to complement our already strong health sciences programs as well as the proposed college of osteopathic medicine.”
“Dr. Creely and Dr. Newell will provide excellent leadership for this new college, and I appreciate their commitment to this initiative,” she said. “I also thank Dr. Lynanne Black for her outstanding service as interim dean of the College of Health and Human Services. She has done an excellent job in this position and in her leadership role in the Academic Review and Restructuring Process,” Provost Luetkehans said.
Lisa Newell
Black will return to her role as a faculty member in the IUP Department of School Psychology, Special Education, and Sociology.
Part of the Academic Review and Restructuring Process included finding areas of growth. Nursing (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels), public health, and health services administration were all identified as potential growth areas.
“Our Strategic Plan and focus on becoming a more student-centered university remain at the center of all of this review and restructuring work,” Provost Luetkehans said. “We’ll continue to do this on a regular basis to ensure that we offer a relevant program array to ensure sustainability for our institution and to resource areas of investment, including strong programs and growth opportunities.”
“I have quickly come to deeply respect Dr. Creely and Dr. Newell for their work, their ability to build bridges, and for their innovative thinking,” Dean of IUP’s proposed college of osteopathic medicine Miko Rose said. “Incorporating psychology into the health sciences is an impotent component of taking care of people; having psychology in this new college shows that IUP recognizes this critically important part of addressing health and wellness,” she said.
In addition to her role as interim dean, Creely will serve as Vice Provost for Research and Innovation, leading the university’s research and innovation area, including supervising the director of research compliance, research support services, the university libraries, and will be the liaison with IUP Research Institute. The responsibilities of the School of Graduate Studies will transition to various academic affairs offices and to individual academic departments as part of the Academic Review and Restructuring process.
Creely has been at IUP since 2010. Prior to her current position, she held a number of positions in the School of Graduate Studies and Research, including as interim dean, associate dean, and assistant dean.
“This interim role is an incredibly exciting opportunity,” Interim Dean Creely said. “This position allows me to really focus on the health and wellness of our region – one of my ongoing passions – and closely partner with the proposed college of osteopathic medicine,” she said.
Newell joined the IUP Department of Psychology in 2007 and has held the rank of professor in the department since 2019. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she has served on numerous interdepartmental and university-wide committees, including her current role as the co-chair of the Council of Chairs.
“The new College of Health Sciences, and its collaboration with the proposed college of osteopathic medicine, brings our faculty and students together in new ways with the potential to provide important benefits for our local community,” Newell said. “I am thrilled to be partnering with Creely to build this endeavor from the ground up.”
Creely received a bachelor of science with honors in biology at George Washington University; a juris doctor and certificate of specialization in law and technology at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Law; and a PhD in molecular biology from Brown University.
Before joining IUP, Creely was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. She was also a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Stem Cell Fellow in Law, a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Germany, a Max-Planck-Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and an NIH pre-doctoral institutional training grant funding recipient.
She has taught classes for the University of California–Berkeley, Brown University, Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, and Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island.
Newell earned her masters of science degree and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and her bachelor of science in psychology from Slippery Rock University. She is the 2016 recipient of the John J. and Char Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Outstanding Achievement Award for service and has held a number of leadership positions in departmental, university, and state-wide committees and boards, such as chair of the Research Institute Advisory Committee and co-chair of the PASSHE Search Advocacy Workgroup. She has a number of presentations and publications to her credit and has also mentored many doctoral students and undergraduate honors students in their research projects. This work has been supported by numerous IUP and Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education grants.
Prior to coming to IUP, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the University of Miami and a postdoctoral fellow supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation at Florida International University.