July 1, 2004 -- Nisha Botchwey studied coral reefs for her environmental science degree at Harvard. At Penn she became intrigued by coastal development and how pollution and runoff caused by development impacted marine life immediately offshore. Dying coral reefs are a warning sign, she says, and human habitation must be put on a healthy footing before the environment offshore can be remediated.

Today, Nisha Botchwey teaches in the Department of Urban and Environmental planning in the School of Architecture, while her husband Edward is a member of the faculty in biomedical engineering. He was encouraged to come to U.Va. from Penn where Dr. Cato Laurencin, Lillian T. Pratt Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of orthopaedic surgery, was his mentor. His research interests are in tissue engineering, and particularly in finding new ways to promote angiogenesis and vascular remodeling to enhance bone healing. Both Nisha and Ed are fellows in the Excellence in Diversity program, which is jointly funded by the Provost and the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. The program matches fellows with advisors, allocates funds for professional development and helps them integrate into the academic community through social events, seminars and other opportunities tailored to meet their individual needs.

This year there are eight fellows in the program, which was established to nurture
the careers of women and under-represented minorities, without being limited to people in these categories. They include Hyekyun Rhee, in the School of Nursing, Robert Tai in the Curry School of Education, Bryant Murphy in anesthesiology,
Hsin-Hsin Liang in Asian and Middle-Eastern languages, Katherine Lebow in history,
and Donna Chen in health evaluation sciences, psychiatric medicine and bioethics.

Listening to Ed Botchwey speak about the Excellence in Diversity program is to
hear an abundance of praise for the people who designed it and those who administer it, including Marva Barnett, the director, and her staff at the Teaching Resource Center. “They help to break down barriers in what is bound to be an intimidating environment for any new faculty member,” says Ed. “They are very effective at identifying the most common and important needs of the fellows, and are even better at creating opportunities for us to interact with the people most able to offer help and support.” His advisor is J.Milton Adams, the Vice Provost for Academic Programs, and they share a passion for biomedical engineering, but Nisha notes that they seem to have lunch together very often too. Nisha’s esteemed advisors are Angela Davis, a faculty member in the English department and dean of Residence Life, and Pamela Kulbok, associate professor of nursing, and they too share a warm relationship.

Both of the Botchweys, who moved to Charlottesville with their two-year-old daughter in fall 2003, feel that the Excellence in Diversity program has very quickly made them feel part of the University community, and has helped them overcome the usual obstacles that would have put them many months behind in their research following the move.

“This program should be expanded so that all incoming junior faculty can access it,” responds Edward when asked what could be done to improve on it. “But it needs to retain its personal relationships between small groups of people,” adds Nisha, who insists that this is the secret to its success.