Senior and Administrative Staff

Catherine Armour joined Georgetown University to help create and manage educational initiatives across the University. As Deputy to the Provost, she is responsible for many academic matters that cross schools and units and for the implementation of initiatives for the university. Ms. Armour previously served as Provost of the Corcoran College at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and was previously Dean of Graduate Studies and Chair of Design programs at the Corcoran. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Middlebury College. Her architectural work has included projects for clients such as the National Cathedral School for Girls, the FBI, Disney, the Seneca Nation of Indians, and Hyatt Hotels. Her work in higher education has centered on developing new programs, creating innovative curricular design, and design strategy in teaching and learning. She recently co-authored an article on Georgetown’s innovation initiative titled “Lessons from a Change Process” for ACE’s The Presidency magazine, and continues to lead work at Georgetown in advancing opportunities for students and faculty.

Dr. David Edelstein David Edelstein is a Professor in the Department of Government, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and the Center for Security Studies. He previously served as Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College, working on a range of issues including the recruitment and retention of faculty, the development of new interdisciplinary undergraduate programs, and the management of graduate programs housed within the College of Arts & Sciences. Professor Edelstein is a scholar of great power politics, military intervention, and the causes of war and peace. He is the author of two books and has held fellowships at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and the Wilson Center. Professor Edelstein received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and B.A. from Colgate University.

Dr. Chandan Vaidya is a professor in the Psychology Department in Georgetown College and an investigator at the Children’s Research Institute, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC. Dr. Vaidya is a cognitive neuroscientist with a research focus on the neural basis of regulatory behavior and how it goes awry in disorders originating in childhood. Dr. Vaidya’s research involves multidisciplinary methods, comprising of behavioral, neuropsychological, and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging in children and adult populations. She is the 2018 recipient of the Presidential Scholar-Teacher award. Dr. Vaidya received her Ph.D. and M.S. from Syracuse University.

Dr. Jeffrey Urbach received his Ph.D in Physics at Stanford University, and after a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin joined the Physics Department in the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgetown University as an Assistant Professor in 1996 and was promoted to Professor of Physics in 2006. He served as chair of the Physics Department for a total of 8 years, as the co-Director of the Program on Science in the Public Interest from its founding in 2006 until 2011, and the Director of the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology from its founding in 2011 until 2015. From 2009-10, he served as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the US Department of Energy.   

Dr. Urbach’s research interests include complex dynamical systems, biophysics, and soft matter physics. His diverse interdisciplinary collaborations have produced impactful publications in materials physics, cellular biophysics, biomaterials, optical imaging and statistical physics. He received a Sloan Foundation Fellowship and sustained research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and other government agencies and private foundations. In 2000, Dr. Urbach received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and in 2016 he was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society.    

As vice president and chief operating officer for Georgetown’s Main Campus, Darryl E. Christmon works closely with various offices including the Provost Finance and Business Services Office, Student Financial Services, Registrar, Undergraduate Admissions, Center for Intercultural Education and Development, Global Services and the Reserve Officers Training Corps program (ROTC). Christmon formerly served as vice president and chief finance officer for the Main Campus from 1997 to 2014. Before coming to Georgetown, Christmon served as vice president for fiscal affairs at Jackson (MS) State University, university comptroller at the University of Maryland, College Park, and university budget director at Howard University. He also held earlier positions at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst & Young).    

Christmon received his M.B.A. from Howard University and his B.S. in accounting from Jackson State University.  He has been a certified public accountant in the states of Maryland and Mississippi. He currently holds the following positions: member of the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He was formerly: a member of the Georgetown (Employees) Federal Credit Union Board of Directors where he acted as president and later served as treasurer; member and secretary / treasurer of the Washington Research Library Consortium board of directors; and member and finance committee chair of the board of directors of House of Ruth in Washington, D.C. Christmon is also a former vice president of the Metro-Washington, D.C. chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants.

Randy Bass is the Vice President for Strategic Education Initiatives and a Professor of English, where he leads the Designing the Future(s) initiative and the Red House incubator for curricular transformation. For 13 years he was the Founding Executive Director of Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), and for seven years, Vice Provost for Education.

He has been working at the intersections of new media technologies and the scholarship of teaching and learning for nearly thirty years. In 1994, the American Studies Crossroads Project, which he founded and directed for ten years, was the first ever Web-based project funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement for Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). From 2003-2009 he was a Consulting Scholar for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he served, in 1998-99, as a Pew Scholar and Carnegie Fellow. From 2000-2005, he served as Director and Principal Investigator of the Visible Knowledge Project, a five-year project on the impact of technology on the teaching of humanities, history and culture, involving 70 faculty on 21 university and college campuses.

Alyscia Eisen is the Vice President and Chief Business Officer for Georgetown’s Main Campus. Alyscia joined the Main Campus in this role in 2022 after more than three years of service at Georgetown University and more than 15 years working in higher education. Previously at Georgetown, Alyscia helped build out the internal consulting team, the Business Design & Optimization Group (BDOG), and served as Assistant Vice President for Financial Management & Strategy in University Services, overseeing financial planning and analysis as well as operations. 
 
Through her consulting work, Alyscia served across the university on major initiatives including building and launching Adaptive, a unified financial planning and analysis tool; creating long range financial plans for some Main Campus and Medical Center schools; planning and executing the launch of the new School of Nursing and School of Health; and helping to develop the University’s presence downtown. As Vice President and Chief Business Officer in the Office of the Provost, Alyscia supervises the Office of the Provost’s Finance and Business Services Division. Reporting directly to the Provost, she is responsible for overseeing efforts in revenue and expenditure management, capital planning, and financial planning in support of the educational mission of the Main Campus.

As Vice President for Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Dr. Colbert works with the Provost to identify existing and potential future interdisciplinary education, research and service programs for the University. 

Dr. Colbert is the Idol Family Professor in the Georgetown College of Arts & Sciences, holding a joint appointment as full professor in the African American Studies Department and the Department of Performing Arts. 

Throughout her time at Georgetown, Dr. Colbert has demonstrated a deep commitment to service, taking on a number of leadership roles including Vice Dean, Chair of the Department of Performing Arts, Director of the Theater and Performance Studies Program, Director of Arts Initiatives, and as a member of the Racial Justice Working Group, and Chair of our Task Force on Gender Equity. Dr. Colbert previously served as Interim Dean of the Georgetown College of Arts & Sciences. 

Dr. Colbert has been honored for her exceptional teaching and leadership with the Georgetown University Edward B. Bunn Award for Faculty Excellence, a Georgetown University Women in Leadership Award, and a Georgetown University Black Student Alliance Outstanding Faculty Award, among other notable achievements. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University. 

Dr. Ali Whitmer is the Associate Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at Georgetown University. She came to the role having served as Chief of Staff to the Provost, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Strategic Planning and, prior to that, Dean of Science in Georgetown College. In her role as Associate Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Whitmer provides leadership in support of the creative, visionary and strategic potential of Georgetown’s faculty in support of the University’s mission and goals. She works directly with the Provost to brainstorm avenues for developing interdisciplinary centers, institutes, and programs that synthesize the work of faculty across schools, campuses and fields of study. She also collaborates with faculty throughout the University to facilitate strategic planning to transform their ideas into new initiatives. Dr. Whitmer received her Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Washington where her research focused on the population dynamics and genetics of kelp forests. Her more recent research focuses on issues of urban sustainability and environmental justice. Over her career she has developed a portfolio of research and administration in ecological science and science education at K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels. She has worked with national-level science education initiatives funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on strategic planning initiatives with societies such as the Ecological Society of America and Sigma Xi, and served as a lead PI on the NSF Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program strategic planning process.

Dr. Adanna J. Johnson serves as Associate Vice President for Student Equity and Inclusion. In this role, Dr. Johnson provides leadership for the Office of Student Equity and Inclusion (OSEI) which includes the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, the Community Scholars Program, and the Georgetown Scholars Program. The OSEI oversees a broad range of work focused on student access and success, on our diversity and inclusion work with students, and in contributing to Georgetown’s work with the American Talent Initiative. She convenes two university-wide councils addressing these vital areas.

Dr. Johnson comes to Georgetown from a distinguished career in higher education. For 10 years, she was a member of the Loyola University Maryland faculty as an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the African and African American Studies Program at Loyola University Maryland. At Loyola, she also co-chaired the institutional Racial Justice Training Implementation. Dr. Johnson completed her undergraduate work at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, and both her Master’s and Ph.D. work at Marquette University. She has published extensively on a range of topics, with a particular focus on cultural competence and use of cultural approaches to healing as well as recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in higher education. Her long clinical experience working with clients further deepens the perspectives she will bring to this work. Dr. Johnson also has a history of extensive service in professional associations and on local community boards. Acknowledgments of her work include being named Mentor of the Year by the Maryland Psychological Association of Graduate Students (2015); receiving a certificate of appreciation from the city of Baltimore for her community healing work following the Baltimore Uprisings from then Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C (2016); and being recognized by the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology with their Ethnic and Racial Diversity Individual Award.

Scott leads the Office of Assessment and Decision Support in providing strategic coordination in data collection, analysis, institutional research and assessment in support of University planning and continuous improvement of educational programs. 
 
Scott has more than 15 years of experience in higher education settings. He was previously the Vice President for Institutional Strategy and Chief Information Officer at Eastern Menonite University (EMU). Prior to that position, he held roles as Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness & Strategic Planning and Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at EMU. His main areas of responsibility were strategic planning, assessment, institutional research, accreditation, analytics, and oversight of campus technology. Scott has also served as the Director of Assessment and Institutional Research and then the Interim Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing at Goshen College. Scott gained early experience in Institutional Research (IR) serving in a variety of roles including Research Analyst over five years in the IR office at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his Ed.D. and Ed.M in Higher Education from Harvard University and B.A. from Goshen College.

As the Director of Education and Academic Affairs, Dr. Tammi Damas works closely with Provost Robert Groves and Vice Provost for Education, Dr. David Edelstein, in the planning and oversight of the full range of responsibilities related to program review, program development, accreditation, and curriculum innovation. Tammi rejoins Georgetown after having served as the Associate Dean for the Division of Nursing at Howard University. In this position, Tammi served as the Chief Nurse Administrator where she oversaw the daily operations for undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, including the supervision of faculty members, the development of graduate student curriculum, and the management of budgets within the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences. Prior to her service at Howard University, Tammi worked as an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies where she was deeply involved with curricular and student development.

Arun is a Senior Advisor to the Provost. Over his 17 years as a Partner at Columbia Capital, Arun focused on investments in Federal, Cybersecurity, AI, and Information service business and remains actively involved with its portfolio companies. In addition, he teaches “Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital” at Georgetown Business School and “New Ventures in Washington: Valley Meets Mission” at Stanford in Washington. Arun is a member of Senator Mark Warner’s Cybersecurity Task Force, Georgetown’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, the Stanford in Washington Advisory Board and a Strategic Advisor to CEO of Think Food Group.

Prior to joining Columbia Capital in 2000, Arun was at Carlyle Venture Partners focused on software investments. He also held positions in Arthur D. Little’s telecom and technology consulting practice and shared responsibility for establishing ADL’s management consulting operations in India. 

Arun received a B.S. degree with Distinction in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. degree in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University (’91) and received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (’95).