51st Faculty Senate
Welcome to the 51st Senate of the Academic Council.
Stephen Stedman, Senate Chair
Stephen Stedman is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, professor, by courtesy, of political science, and deputy director of the Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law. He is an expert on the mediation and implementation of peace agreements in civil wars. He served as a special adviser and assistant secretary general of the United Nations, where he helped to create the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, the UN’s Peacebuilding Support Office, the UN’s Mediation Support Office, the Secretary’s General’s Policy Committee, and the UN’s counterterrorism strategy. During 2005 his office successfully negotiated General Assembly approval of the Responsibility to Protect. From 2010 to 2012, he chaired the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy, and Security, an international body mandated to promote and protect the integrity of elections worldwide. In the upcoming year, he will serve as secretary general of the Kofi Annan Commission on Democracy in the Digital Age, which will examine how social media affects the integrity of elections. At Stanford, Stedman’s teaching has focused on broadening the understanding of security, co-teaching with Roz Naylor on Food and Security, and Paul Wise on Health and Security. He taught two Bing Overseas Seminars, and was faculty in residence at the Bing Overseas Center in Cape Town. In 2000, he and Scott Sagan created the Center for International Security and Cooperation’s honors program, which he directed for several years. He currently directs the Fisher Family Honors Program in Democracy, Development and Rule of Law. Stedman has served in the Faculty Senate, the Senate’s Steering Committee, the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid, the Committee on Residential Learning, and as chair of the Committee on Committees. He and his wife Corinne Thomas are the Resident Fellows in Crothers, Stanford’s academic theme house in Global Citizenship. In 2018, Stedman was awarded the Lloyd B. Dinkelspiel Award for outstanding service to undergraduate education at Stanford.
Vice Chair, Marcia L. Stefanick
Marcia L. Stefanick Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center (SPRC) for which she directs several courses in the SPRC Master’s program in Community Health and Prevention Research, and Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, and, by courtesy, Professor of Health Research & Policy. She has several leadership roles in the School of Medicine (SoM), including as Director and co-founder of the Stanford Women’s Health and Sex Differences in Medicine (WHSDM, “wisdom”) Center, co-leader of Stanford Cancer Institute’s Population Science Program, co-chair of the LGBTQ subcommittee of the SOM Diversity Cabinet, one of three Department of Medicine (DOM) representatives on the School of Medicine’s Faculty Senate and Chair of the DOM’s Appointment and Promotions Committee. She is also a member of the Stanford University’s Women’s Faculty Forum Steering Committee and a member of the Human Biology Program’s Curriculum committee, as she teaches several Human Biology courses, most of which are cross-listed as Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies courses because of their focus on sex and gender in human physiology and disease, sexual function and diversity, and the health impact of sexual assault and relationship abuse, and all of which address health promotion and wellness over the life course. She was also a Clayman Institute Faculty Fellow. Her research focuses on women’s health, aging, and physical activity, and currently includes the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the largest study of older women ever conducted, the WHI Strong & Healthy (WHISH) trial which randomly assigned nearly 50,000 older women across the nation to either a physical activity intervention or “usual activity” control, and the Osteoporotic Study of Men (MrOS) which focuses on bone health and body composition changes with aging.
51st Steering Committee of the Senate
The Steering Committee (StC) of the Senate sets the Senate Agenda, confers degrees for the Summer, Autumn and Winter quarters, and serves at Administrative Sessions to the StC to review undergraduate and graduate programs on behalf of the Senate. StC members are elected each year by the Senate. Joining Chair, Stephen Stedman are;
- Marcia Stefanick, Vice Chair (Medicine)
- John Dabiri (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
- Andy Fire (Pathology)
- Mary Beth Mudgett (Biology)
- Mehran Sahami (Computer Science)
- Ken Taylor (Philosophy)
- Guadalupe Valdes (Graduate School of Education)
- Persis Drell (Provost, ex-officio)
- Tom Wasow (Academic Secretary, ex-officio)
- Adrienne Emory (Assistant Academic Secretary, Staff)
Senate Membership
Senate 51 Roster
Senate 51 Student Representatives
Senate Minutes
Autumn Quarter
Winter Quarter
Spring Quarter
Annual Academic Council Meeting
President Tessier-Lavigne convenes the Academic Council faculty to deliver a state of the university address.
Administrative Sessions of the Steering Committee on Behalf of the Senate
The Steering Committee (StC) holds administrative sessions as needed to hear routine or administrative matters that would otherwise come before the full Senate. This allows the Senate to spend more time on issues that need broader discussion and debate prior to action. All Senators are welcome to attend administrative sessions.