Shelome Gooden

As Pitt’s first-ever Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research for the Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Related Fields, Shelome Gooden works with and across leadership throughout the University to evolve new collaborations and research synergies that draw on strengths outside the laboratory and clinical areas. She participates ex officio on the University Research Council and works to develop institutional-level funding to support research in the target areas.

Gooden’s leadership contributions at Pitt include six years as chair of the Department of Linguistics (2012-2018) and extensive contributions to faculty engagement in the Dietrich School. She collaborates with faculty in Linguistics and Pitt’s Schools of Medicine, Education, and the David Berg Center as part of the Humanities in Health group.

During her tenure as Chair of Linguistics, she worked with faculty to increase the number of women in the tenure-stream. In addition, she led in reorganizing and overhauling department research infrastructure to expand the experimental and computational methods capabilities, while also providing support for teaching-related research for appointment stream faculty.  

Gooden received her B.A. in linguistics from the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica) in 1996, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in linguistics from the Ohio State University, 2003. Her peer-reviewed publications include journal articles, edited volumes, edited special issues of top Linguistics journals, high profile conference proceedings, and invited articles in prestigious Handbooks.

Gooden sees her appointment as “being an integral part of efforts to sustain a research environment that encourages creativity, collaboration, and community throughout the University.”

Gooden is married and is the mother of two young children.