Kafri, Tal

UNC Service

I have been a professor in the Microbiology and immunology at UNC school of medicine since 2000 (assistant to full professor) and have carried the required departmental teaching duties.
As a member of UNC Gene Therapy Center (GTC) since 1999, I provided technical support to the research community at UNC. In 2005, I served as an interim Director of UNC Gene Therapy Center. I established the UNC Lenti shRNA and cDNA core facility (2007). As a core director, I directly supported numerous research studies and grant applications. I served in two post tenure review committees of UNC SOM (2018 and 2021).

Candidate Statement

I am running for this position since I wish to affect the educational and social policies of UNC. I was disappointed with the outcome of recent events at UNC. Specifically, I feel that the inability of UNC faculty to change the final outcome of Nikole Hannah-Jones’s tenure saga was extremely regrettable. I believe that the faculty council can and should be more assertive in its interaction with the leadership of UNC. Furthermore, with more than 30K students and 2K faculty members, UNC can reduce the academic achievement disparities between students (preschoolers to graduate students) from different ethnic groups. I believe that direct involvement of UNC (Students and faculty) in the community can affect the pipeline that produces academic leaders.