Ellen Ann Wartella Professor, Executive Vice-Chancellor and Provost Ph.D., 1977, University of Minnesota (951) 827-5034, ellen.wartella@ucr.edu

Ellen Wartella joined UCR on July 1, 2004 as the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. She also is a distinguished professor of Psychology at UCR.

Dr. Wartella is a leading scholar of the role of media in children's development. Currently she is a co-principal Investigator on a 5-year multi-site research project entitled:  “IRADS Collaborative Research: Influence of Digital Media on Very Young Children” funded by the National Research Foundation (2006-2011).  She was a co-principal Investigator on the National TV Violence Study (1995-1998) and a co-principal investigator of the Children's Digital Media Center project funded by the National Science Foundation (2001-2006). She serves on the Board of Trustees of Sesame Workshop, the National Educational Advisory Board of the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Harvard’s Center on Children’s Media and Children’s Health,  and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Children Youth and Families.  She recently served on the Institute of Medicine's Panel Study on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth (2006). During 2006-2007 she was the Inaugural Senior Fellow of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media.  She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Research in Child Development and is the past President of the International Communication Association.

As the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Dr. Wartella works closely with the Chancellor in the formulation of the campus vision and implementation of academic and administrative policies; works closely with the Deans in recruitment and retention of faculty; has responsibility for managing the daily operations of the campus; and is principal liaison to the Academic Senate.

Dr. Wartella earned her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota in 1977 and completed her postdoctoral research in development psychology in 1981 at the University of Kansas. She joined UCR after serving as Dean of the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin.