Lori Dickes
Director
Meet the Team
The Office of Faculty Advancement provides you with career support and resources — from insightful learning materials to powerful mentorships — to help guide and inspire your upward career in higher education and propel the university toward its new strategic plan: Clemson®ELEVATE. Behind it all is our knowledgeable team, dedicated to helping you achieve your personal and professional goals.
Continue on to learn more about how each member of our team plays a key role in helping you achieve your professional goals in higher education at Clemson and beyond.
Meet the Team
Carlos D. Garcia
Faculty Fellow, Best Practices in Faculty Reviews
Marian Kennedy
Faculty Fellow, Mid-Career Faculty Mentoring
Paige Thomsen
Office Coordinator
Get to Know the Faculty at the Office of Faculty Advancement
Learn more about the team at the Office of Faculty Advancement, their areas of expertise, and how they advocate for your career needs and deliver unwavering career support for all members of Clemson faculty.
Lori Dickes, Ph.D.
Dr. Lori A. Dickes is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science. With more than 20 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Dickes has been the Masters in Public Administration (MPA) program coordinator at Clemson University since 2013, most recently serving as the associate department chair and the graduate programs coordinator.
With a Ph.D. in Policy, Dr. Dickes' research leverages specific training in economics and policy analysis to better understand rural and regional development across different geographies and contexts. Her research has focused on a range of specific issues impacting a community's ability to achieve economic and social sustainability, including issues of rural entrepreneurship, economic development, opioid policy and interventions and natural resource policy. Dr. Dickes was a recipient of the 2022 University Ralph D. Elliott Award for Outstanding Service to Off-Campus, Distance and Continuing Education and the 2021- Clemson University Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring Award and has also served as the Clemson University chair on the Commission on Women, the co-lead of the provost’s Taskforce on Caregiving during COVID, and a participant in the Clemson ACC- Leader’s network and others.
Her commitment to a wide range of service activities to the profession and the institution make her an excellent director of Faculty Advancement and an ultra-reliable resource for navigating and enriching your career in higher education. Through her administrative, teaching and research work, she seeks to provide leadership and support to create innovative and transformative organizations that help sustain institutions and communities.
Carlos D. Garcia, Ph.D.
Dr. Carlos D Garcia is a professor in the Department of Chemistry. He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the National University of Cordoba, Argentina and has performed postdoctoral studies at MSU and CSU, joining Clemson University in 2015 after a successful tenure at UT San Antonio.
Dr. Garcia's research is dedicated to the advancement, understanding and applicability of microfluidic devices, nanomaterials and electrochemical processes. His group is focused on the development of integrated analytical approaches that span from highly specialized instrumentation to simple paper-based devices. Applications of these projects include the quantification of biomedically-relevant analytes, the design of biocatalysts and the implementation of artificial intelligence to address analytical problems. He has supervised numerous graduate and undergraduate students, and the outcomes of their research have been presented and published in over 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Garcia's research has received funding from prestigious organizations, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. In 2018, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Currently, he serves as an editor for Electrophoresis (Wiley) as well as Sensors and Diagnostics (RSC) and works diligently to provide faculty like yourself with career guidance and support.
Marian Kennedy, Ph.D.
Dr. Marian Kennedy is an associate professor in Clemson University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Her research group focuses on understanding how solid materials respond to mechanical normal and sliding loads. As a team, they work to understand how the structure of these metals (such as the arrangement of and bonding between atoms) influences the material’s performance and disseminate their findings to their larger community through co-authored journal publications and at conferences.
Over time, Dr. Kennedy also produced scholarship related to early career formation. She has initiated and collaborated on projects related to discipline-specific self-efficacy, research identity, influence of undergraduate research program participation and instructor/teacher professional development.
Dr. Kennedy jumped at the opportunity to join this team and contribute to supporting faculty in pursuit of their professional goals, particularly for those in mid-career. While she loves the impact her career choice allows her to make in the lives of early career researchers and engineers, she is keenly aware of the sacrifice it can take to balance professional workload and life. She is excited to help other mid-career faculty by implementing evidence-based programming for faculty and administrators.
Paige Thomsen
Paige Thomsen is the office coordinator for the Clemson University Office of Faculty Advancement. She coordinates activities and events supporting the office's programming and manages office operations. Previously, she worked as a grant program coordinator for two Clemson University National Science Foundation (NSF) grants: TIGERS Advance Program and the National Research Traineeship (NRT) for Resilient Infrastructure and Environmental Systems Graduate Program.
Paige received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2015 and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning at Clemson University. Paige received the 2021 ‘Outstanding Women’ award for staff presented by the Clemson University Commission on Women. Paige also participated in the provost’s Caregiver Task Force, coordinated and assisted the Women’s Commission with Women’s Celebration Month and was the president of her graduate program’s student organization from 2021-2022.
Paige's heavy involvement and demonstrated resume of excellence are what make her a dependable Office of Faculty Advancement team member you can count on for fresh, exciting professional opportunities to inspire and motivate your career growth.
